Rosius randomness :D
by kyou fangirl
Summary: Rose and scorpius hate each other... or do they? far to lazy to write a decent summary. :P oh and also it has spoilers for book seven of harry potter duh and some mild twilight :P spoilers as well... and its my first fic so be nice! REVIEW! :D
1. Chapter 1

Disclamer: I don't own harry potter. (duh)

It had taken a while, but the two new students, Rose and Albus, finally made their way onto the Hogwarts express. They were both obviously nervous but it certainly helped to have each other. What didn't help was that the moment they were separated from their parents and loaded onto the train, their siblings and cousins wandered off to seek out their friends. This left Rose and Albus alone in a suddenly deserted section of the train.

They wandered around for a bit, searching for an empty compartment. Full…full…full…

"Here! I found an empty one over here, Rosie!" shouted Al from a few yard away from Rose. She wandered over and froze, looking in at the unmistakable platinum blond head of a Malfoy.

"It's not empty, Al," she said, and continued looking into the other compartments.

"Yeah, but we can still fit in there, can't we?"

'Don't get to friendly with him, Rosie.' That's what her dad had told her. And to be perfectly honest, she had heard enough about that Malfoy lot to know that she wanted nothing to do with them.

Still, she really didn't fancy having to wander around the entire train before they found a seat. Reluctantly, she followed Albus into the compartment.

He didn't look up when they entered because he was immersed in a book. She let out a snort on seeing this just because she never pictured reading as a Malfoy-ish hobby.

"Something funny," he glanced up "Weasley?" He glared at her and she was just about to snap back when Albus stepped in.

"No. we were just wondering if we could sit here. Everywhere else is full."

At this, Scorpius merely shrugged and opened up the book again, hiding his face from view.

The train ride stayed like this, with Scorpius reading and the other two sitting across from him, for several minutes before Albus got bored and took a nap on Roses shoulder. She groaned and grabbed a book from her bag. It was only then that she realized that Scorpius's book was identical to the one she had just pulled out. It was "Hogwarts: a History."

Upon realizing this, anger flashed in her eyes. That was supposed to be HER THING! She was, being Hermione Weasley's daughter, supposed to be the know-it-all book worm! 'Oh, whatever,' she thought, 'I'm still gonna do like Dad said and beat him in every class! Who cares if he's done his homework! With his genetics, he's still gonna be a moron.' She gloated inwardly, remembering how her own mum had beaten Malfoy's dad in every class when they were

The thought of a Malfoy being her competitor for "know-it-all of the year"

disturbed her, but she was glad for the competition; for a rival. Being a member of such a large, pushy family meant she was always competing with her relatives over something or another. The idea of having someone to beat was familiar in a new place, and she relished in it.

'Hm. She's reading. Typical. She is so her mothers daughter. No matter. I'll still be able to do what Father couldn't. I swear I'll beat the little halfblood in everything they throw at us.' He returned to his reading, thinking 'look out Hogwarts here I come.

2


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Sorting

Nearly the entire train ride passed in silence. It was only about half an hour before they arrived that Albus awoke and the other two closed their books.

"So…" began Albus in an attempt to lessen the tension and to distract the other two from their glaring contest. "What house do you two want to be in?"

"Slytherin."

"Gryffindor."

The two answered simultaneously and their answers only served to raise the awkwardness several levels. Albus, sighed. Seeing this as a lost cause, he spent the rest of the ride eating chocolate frogs and making note of the cards with his family members on them or with one of his namesakes. The other two resumed their glaring.

They all got off the train and the Weasleys and Potters all gathered together.

"First years! Ov'r 'ere!" came a voice they all new well. Even Rose and Albus recognized Hagrid's voice. He was a common guest at their homes, and he was always checking in on their parents. Hagrid loved each and every one of them and some of them resembled their parents so much, it made him feel almost as if Harry and everyone else were back.

Meanwhile, Scorpius was standing near them watching with a slight grimace on his face. He wasn't sure what it was, but seeing happy families always made him uncomfortable. Perhaps it had to do with how unhappy his own family was…but whatever.

After this sickeningly touching scene, they all crowded onto the small boats, Scorpius, Rose and Albus ending up together . . . again. Everyone in the boat was pretty much in agreement that this sucked.

By the time they arrived at the other shore, it sucked even more. All three of them were soaked, and really, really not happy. It had gone something like this: Silence, Al trying to break the silence, mockery, more mockery, worse mockery, Rose pushing Scorpius into the lake, and, in turn, Scorpius doing the same to her. Poor Al got hit by the splash. Twice.

Albus was never one to hold grudges, and had never really let all of Uncle Ron's stories about the Malfoys get to him. He, therefore, found it hard to understand how these two had only known each other for a matter of hours, barely talked to one another once, and could already have developed such a strong hatred. Well, it wasn't _entirely_ hard to believe. Though Rose was his favorite cousin, he knew all too well that she could be rather hot-tempered at times. He also knew that he was her favorite cousin, even if she never admitted it. She could really be shy at times.

At the entrance of the great hall, a very tall, very old, very intimidating woman peered down at them over her spectacles. Her gaze lingered on Rose, Albus and Scorpius, all of whom looked thoroughly disgruntled and wet. She sighed. She knew their parents all too well and didn't need to ask to get the basic idea of what had happened. That, and she wasn't a bad legilemens either. She merely flicked her wand at them and all three of them were instantly dry.

They entered the hall timidly, led by the old woman, who had introduced herself as Professor McGonigal. She also mentioned that she was the headmistress, which did nothing to make them feel less nervous or intimidated.

There was a collective gasp as the young first years stepped into the great hall. It all seemed so big and magnificent to them. Even those who had heard stories from their parents were awestruck by the splendor, and most of them were imagining how much better it will be when the four tables are covered with gold and silver platters of food.

James, Victoire, Roxanne, Dominique, Molly, Lucy and Fred all waved from where they were sitting at the Gryffindor table, giving reassuring smiles and pointing out their siblings to their friends. Albus blushed as he saw James pointing him out to his girlfriend, who was sitting next to him. 'Telling embarrassing stories, no doubt…' he thought bitterly, turning away. At the Ravenclaw table, Rose and Albus saw Louis, their other cousin at Hogwarts. He winked at them, knowing how nervous they were. He had been nervous, too, and practically fainted when he was in Ravenclaw. Louis had been the first person in his entire family that had ever gone to Hogwarts and had not been in Gryffindor. In a way, this reassured Al and Rose. They knew now that, despite how much their parents joked, rather cruelly I might add, about disinheriting them, they would really support them in anything that happened.

All of the first years stared in anticipation. They were looking directly at one thing now: the worn out, grayish, patched-up hat that sat on a stool in the very front of the hall. The new students waited, and waited until finally the hat opened its mouth. The girl next to Rose, Scorpius and Al promptly fainted.

"Ten galleons says she's a muggle-born," whispered Albus to Rose. Rose merely shushed him, knowing better than to make a bet with Al. All the parents agreed that he was destined to be one of the "third generation marauders." None of them was really sure what the joke was until Harry had explained about the original marauders and then Fred and George, the next generation of trouble makers. Al was like them, good with trickery and better at getting away with it. Though none of them, except Teddy, had ever met their Uncle Fred, they all felt as though he was there all the time. He was mentioned frequently in their households and his memory was really not sad anymore. The adults always said he would rather have been laughed about then mourned over.

Anyway, back to the hat. It had awoken suddenly, startling everyone. It glared at them for a moment and then burst into song.

"_Not long ago, the Dark Lord rose, and waged a brutal war_

_And it was thought that this was not a safe school anymore_

_It all seemed lost, we'd given up, but then our heroes came_

_Potter, Granger and Weasley, were our saviors' names_

_They helped the houses band together, and made us much more strong_

_And they're the reason why you're all still here to hear this song_

_So now I will waste no more time, I'll find where you belong_

_But remember that houses are unimportant, and now, here ends my soooooong!"_

There was hesitant clapping. Most in the hall were in agreement that the hat was getting a bit… strange as it aged, hence the dropping of the ball as far as the songs go. But nobody questioned the hat's impeccable ability to put you where you truly belong, and that's what really matters.

Rose, Scorpius and Albus, all having names that started with letters in the second-half of the alphabet, had to endure a fair amount of torture. All that was really bugging Al was his relatively short attention span and his hatred of boredom. Rose and Scorpius, however, were bothered by the fact that they were squished next to each other and couldn't pick a fight. It was pretty much the equivalent of Chinese water torture.

At last, Annabelle Makoni, the muggle-born who had only recently recovered from her unconsciousness, was sorted into Huffelpuf. It was Scorpius's turn now. As he left for the stool in the front of the hall, Rose let out a sigh, and blinked several times, recovering from their staring, or rather, glaring contest.

He was keeping his usual, cool air about him, but he definitely looked agitated. He was nervous. Really nervous. Truth be told, he wasn't sure that Slytherin was right for him. He wanted to be in that house simply to make his father proud. When his father wasn't proud, he was generally violent and cruel. Scorpius had first experienced the torture curse at the age of 6, when he was caught playing with his father's wand, and it was an experience he tried to avoid as much as possible.

'Mustn't vomit…mustn't vomit!' thought Scorpius. It was a hard task, but he managed to avoid being sick, though he looked rather green. He walked slowly up to the stool where the raggedy old hat waited, along with the ever-intimidating Minerva McGonigal. He climbed onto the stool, feeling as though this were a life or death situation, which, in all fairness, it could very well be, knowing his father's abusive habits.

Pushing those unwanted thoughts to the back of his mind, Scorpius braced himself for whatever was to come. Then it came. A big floppy hat landed roughly on his blonde head, falling down to cover his eyes. He held his breath in anticipation. _Hmmmm…_ came a little voice in his head. _Hmmmmm, I see a lot in you, boy. Uncertainty, that's for sure. A need to impress your father. I strongly advise telling someone if he's really that harsh. _'Oh, shut up! You're a hat! I don't care what you have to say about my family!' _Your tone of voice would suggest otherwise, but no matter. I see pride…ambition…power. Lots of power. I see that you want to be in Slytherin… but I'm afraid it's not that simple, young man. Do you really want to be somewhere you don't belong? For the next seven years? _'No…' he thought to himself. _Just because you think it to __**yourself**__ doesn't mean I can't hear it. _'Shut up!' _And quite a temper you've got there, too! My, my…you're a very clever young boy. Even if you have a temper stronger than your wit, there is no denying that you are a most clever child indeed…_ He inwardly cringed at the use of the word child. Like the hat said, he had pride. _I will admit that you would make a fine Slytherin- _YES!- _**however! **__I am the one who gets to decide…usually…and you, my friend, are to be in-_

"RAVENCLAW!"

Cheers rang through the hall, particularly at the Ravenclaw table. The other first-year girls who were already in Ravenclaw, sighed dreamily at how lucky they were. Whatever anyone said about Scorpius, nobody could deny his good looks.

'Why is there cheering?' thought Scorpius from where he still sat on the stool, a look of utter horror creeping onto his handsome face. 'Don't they understand? This is NOT a HAPPY thing!' he thought as McGonigal shoved him insistently towards his appointed table. He went willingly, but still had the the-apocalypse-is-near-and-nothing-can-stop-it kind of look on his face.

Rose had looked up in surprise the moment she heard the hat shouting. 'No… surely not…' she thought 'IT IS! MERLIN'S BEARD! THAT WAS MALFOY!!! He's in…Ravenclaw??? How does that work!? He's not _clever _enough to be in that house…my house.' She thought the last part sadly. It had always been her secret desire to join that group of students who prided themselves in their wit. She was a born Ravenclaw and she knew it, but she still felt the need to impress her father. While her Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur had been accepting when Louis wasn't in Gryffindor, there was always something in her dad's tone of voice when he told her he would disown her if she wasn't in Gryffindor that told her he was only half joking. Half joking meant half serious. Half serious really freaked Rose out.

All too soon, the call of "Potter, Albus!" rang out, McGonigal's voice cracking slightly on the name "Albus."

"Good luck, Al," whispered Rose, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. He smiled weakly at her before stepping up to face his doom. Rose knew that Al's worst fear was to be placed in Slytherin. The hard thing was, that deep down, she always knew that was where he was destined to be. She often got strong notions like this, and was very rarely wrong. That's why she was baffled that she could never win in a bet with Al. She just supposed he cheated, like everyone said her Uncle George did. She loved Al like she loved her own brother, and she couldn't bear it when he was upset. She felt even more nervous for him than for herself…if that was even possible.

Albus didn't walk to the hat looking particularly nervous, but more like how an innocent person, convicted of a terrible crime, would look while walking to the gallows: pale as a ghost and clearly aware that his death is inevitable. He had long known of Rose's "sixth sense," as he called it, and the look of concern as she held his hand was enough to tell him that his worst fears were about to be realized. He idolized his father above all else, and his dream was to follow in his footsteps. Be a Gryffindor, an auror and a hero. It was all he asked for in life, and at age eleven, he was already being deprived of it. He had known for several years that he was a Slytherin, through and through. He knew, but denied it. Now he no longer had the luxury of ignoring it. He sat on the stool after what felt like the longest walk of his life. He heard the hat talking in his head, but nothing registered. Nothing, until:

"SLYTHERIN!"

He was already walking towards his table before the hat finished saying the word…that disgusting, evil word. He dully registered the clapping in the back of his mind, but all he paid attention to as he took his seat, was his family. His cousins were standing as they cheered, not seeming to care or notice the strange looks they were getting. Rose caught his eye and nodded kindly. He smiled at her, telling her that he was fine. He was. He felt better already, knowing that his family was there for him. They were his best friends.

The rest of the names passed quickly, some of them were vaguely recognizable as family friends, or just children of some great war hero Rose or Albus's parents had once mentioned fighting alongside.

"Weasley, Rose!"

Taking a deep breath, Rose walked confidently forward. She tried her best not to look like a scared little child. It was another talent of hers, the ability to conceal her emotions. It worked on everyone except her parents, little brother and Al. they knew her a little too well.

"RAVENCLAW!"

'EH?!?!' Rose thought, 'The hat didn't even touch my head! What happened!?!?'

"Um…excuse me…Mister, um, Hat?" The hat raised an eyebrow, or what seemed to be one, at her, which she assumed was his way of saying she was free to ask her question. "Um…well, are you sure? I mean, no offense intended, but you barely touched my head and I want to make sure I'm in the, um, right place, ya know?" She could practically feel her cousins looking at her exasperatedly.

"Miss, do I look unsure about my decision?" asked the hat firmly. In all honesty, she really didn't know. How was she supposed to know what an unsure hat looked like? 'Whatever' she thought, deciding to assume the question was rhetorical.

"Right…" she said, backing away toward her table…that she had to share with a Malfoy.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

School starts

They had been in school for precisely one week. After only one week, Scorpius and Rose were already in detention together (fighting in class is frowned upon). Though Professor Longbottom was perfectly aware of the…issues their families had with each other, nothing could change the fact that using young mandrakes as projectile weapons was inexcusable. This is why it was probably a very bad choice for Longbottom to have their detention be in the greenhouse. There were far too many weapons.

For instance, about an hour into their detention, which consisted mainly of squeezing the pus out of bubotubers, young Rosie happened upon several pots of devil snare in a cage (for obvious reasons). Having heard stories about her parent's days in Hogwarts, Rose was well aware of the powers of devil snare.

"Um… Malfoy?" Rose said, thinking of a plan fast. "I've just spilled some _pus_ over here. Help me clean it up?" she asked innocently.

"Now why, Weasel, would I _ever _do that?" asked Scorpius irritably. Then, however, Professor Longbottom cleared his throat pointedly at him, indicating that he was to help. "Bloody klutz…" muttered Scorpius, heading over to where Rose was standing.

" It's right back there…yeah, there, to the left…" muttered Rose, pointing an unknowing Scorpius into the now open cage of devil snare.

oOoOoOoOo

By the end of detention, Ravenclaw had lost 50 points for the devil snare, 10 points for each rare plant that was destroyed, 5 points for inappropriate language, and both children received a months worth of detention. Longbottom simply sighed, thinking how prejudice had made them even worse than their parents. Some things never change.

*Breakfast next Friday*

"G'mornin' Rosie! Mind passing the toast?…" said Louis. He waited for her to respond…

"Rosie!" he yelled, snapping his fingers in front of her face.

"Eh?" said Rose, waking up from her daze.

"Pass. The. Toast." Said Louis again, annunciating every word as though he was talking to someone who was deaf. Rose did as she was told, and then resumed staring at her bacon. She was in mild shock from the previous night. She was _sure_ that her mother had NEVER gotten detention. She was so ashamed.

She was so dazed that she didn't even notice when Athena, Her large brown barn owl, landed in front of her, bearing three letters.

"OW!" she yelped, as Athena got impacient and started pecking at her forehead insistently. "Alright! I'll read the bloody letters! Just get off!" she shouted. Athena stepped back, looking mildly offended, until rose handed her the bacon she had neglected to touch. Rose untied the letters and absentmindedly began looking through them, picking out the one with her name written on it in her brother's messy handwriting.

Rosie,

You are BLOODY BRILLIANT! I wish I could've seen his face! Me and Dad are so soooo proud of you! And Mum… Well….she's not. She was sooooo mad when dad and I laughed but we couldn't help it! We got a LETTER FROM THE HEADMISTRESS! IT WAS HILARIOUS! Mum said something or another about us being "immature prats." Oh and don't worry, I think shes more mad at us than at you. Still, wouldn't be terribly surprised if you got yourself a howler! That would be EVEN FUNNIER! Oh…gtg… have fun at school. Write back, tell me all about everything that happens.

Love,

Hugo

PS lily says hi and she thinks you're brilliant too 

The next letter was unmistakably her fathers.

Dear Rosie,

I hope you know that your mother and I are _extremely_ disappointed in your behavior. Now that I have said what I am obligated to say as your father, I would also like you to know that I have never been this proud in my life! You are my FAVORITE daughter! I'd say that was even better than that time Mione punched Malfoy! By the way, don't you dare tell your mother I told you about that. I don't think she wants to encourage you. Bye, my ickle-rosie-kins!

Love,

Daddy

Rose made a mental note to kill him later. He wasn't allowed to call her "ickle-rosie-kins" anymore. Those were the rules. He had violated them.

She didn't even need to look to know what came next. She opened the next letter, which was addressed to her in her mother's perfect cursive, as though it were her death sentence.

Dear Rose,

I am very disappointed in your behavior. I can't believe you let all of your fathers rubbish get to you and prejudice you against Scorpius Malfoy. I'm sure he can be a lovely boy if you were to even _try _to put your differences aside! I expected better from you, and hope to get it in the future. That aside, I would like to congratulate you on being in Ravenclaw. That's my little Rosie! Don't worry; we would never _really _disinherit you. I am so proud of how good your grades are. Minerva (Prof. McGonigal) said that your grades are excellent and that she feels this silly rivalry with Scorpius is really holding both you and him back. I have to go now. Remember to write back, control your temper, and _do your homework_! Love you.

-Mum

Well, she supposed it could've gone worse.

*meanwhile, just a few seats down*

Noctua, a beautiful, small, gray owl, swooped down onto her Masters waiting arm. She was carrying a single letter, enclosed in the green envelope Draco always used. It was a symbol of the Malfoy family, 'but not of me,' thought Scorpius, as he hastily untied the letter from Noctua's leg. He was so distracted that he barely noticed when she started stealing some of his cornflakes.

Constellation

Scorpius,

I expected better from you. Ever since I sent you to Hogwarts, you have done nothing but demolish the family name. I hope you are aware of that. You must learn to behave your self, and mustn't let the little half-blood get the best of you. The headmistress indicated that she is getting in the way of your studies. Speaking of Mcgonigal, She refused to let you transfer houses. She said that she was rarely as sure about a child being in the right house as she is now. She seems to think it is where you truly belong. But that's a lie. A Malfoy's proper place is in the noble house of Slytherin, and you will be a Malfoy, even if I need to force it into you. You seem to have lost your sense of pride for yourself and your family, which I will be happy to remind you of when I next see you. We will deal with this when you return for the Holidays. Do not expect to hear from me until then.

-Father

PS Atoria sends her well wishes, and would've written herself, had she not been in bed with a rather bad stomach flue.

'Ah, Mother,' thought Scorpius. Though she was often very sick (nobody knew why, she just had a faulty immune system), and it meant he didn't get to see her as often as he would've liked, Astoria Greengrass Malfoy was one of the few things in his life that Scorpius truly loved anymore.

Most of the day passed relatively uneventfully. Scorpius lost 5 points for "accidentally" turning Rose's hat into a bat, terrifying most of the people in the class, especially Rose. Later she herself lost some points by "accidentally" banishing Scorpius's chair out from under him in the middle of class. But other than that, nothing much to report. Until potions.

All of the first year Ravenclaws and Slytherins stepped cautiously into their potions class for the first time. They hadn't had potions last week due to the fact that their Potions Professor was still on vacation (for whatever reason).

"Hello everybody!" said a tall, rather plump, middle-aged woman, who was sitting at the front of the class. She was smiling a blindingly white smile, her big green eyes (almost as big and green as Al's) twinkling. She looked sickeningly happy and girly. Rose and Al exchanged looks, both thinking the same thing: Umbridge. They had both heard stories about her, and though this woman was tall and almost _pretty, _she gave off the same air of pure evil. Five seconds of knowing her, and it was already apparent that she was one of those people that was just so CHEERFUL that you can't not hate them.

"Now, now, kids. Settle down!" she said, raising from her seat. "My name is Professor Muffy McMuffin, but you can just call me Ms. Muffy! 'Oh, dear Merlin!' thought everyone in the class. "After all, I don't want to _just _be your teacher, I want to be your FRIEND!" suddenly they all felt an awful lot like four-year-olds. They didn't like feeling like four-year-olds.

"I have something very **exciting** to tell all of you!" They highly doubted that. "We're going to be choosing LAB PARTNERS today! You have to choose somebody from another house, to support _inter-house unity!_" While none of them particularly liked the way she said it, they had to admit, it was a pretty good idea. At least, Rose and Al liked it, since they were best friends and were in different houses. It worked out less nicely for Scorpius. The moment Ms. Muffy told them to pick a partner, Rose and Al had taken two seats next to each other, while, much to the disgust of Rose, Scorpius and every other Ravenclaw boy, all the Slytherin girls instantly Threw themselves at Scorpius, who was both smart and good looking.

"no, no," said Ms. Muffy. "Scorpy here is partnerless! That simply wont do at all, now will it?" Did she really just call him "scorpy?" "Ah! Back there, next to Rosie and Aly! There's a seat! You can work with them!" It's official. She's evil. He knew from her big, cheesy smile that she was giving him that this wasn't a request, it was an order. He sat down next to Albus, since he was the one he hated less.

This could only end badly.

*20 minutes later*

"Oi! WEASEL! PASS THE LACE-WING FLY!"

"I'M chopping the lacewing fly! YOU'RE In charge of the BUBOTUBERS! The ones I slaved over for hours, remember!?

"OH _YEAH!_ Wasn't it that time you tried to…hmmm…I dunno... _KILL ME!?!_"

"Um…I finished stirring. What now, Rosie?" asked a timid Albus from in between the two.

"STAY OUT OF THIS!" replied the two simultaneously. He obeyed without a second thought, backing up to where everyone else in the class were slowly gathering to watch. Everyone was watching now, except for Ms. Muffy, who was calmly sipping tea at her desk and reading a copy of _Witch Weekly_. She was aware of what was happening, but was goint to let it escalate until she could take 100 points from somebody.

She looked up, only when she heard the satisfying "SPLAT!" of Albus getting impatient and dumping a pot of diluted bubotuber pus onto Rose's and Scorpius' heads, and the faint cheers and applauds from various onlookers.

"That'll be 50 points each, from Ravenclaw, Rosie and Scorpy," she said in a voice that did a poor job of concealing her enthusiasm. "Oh and Aly, dear" she said, more sympatheticly as Al looked up with an innocent look on his face. "I'm afraid I have to take 5 from you too." He smiled and nodded, knowing that he had gotten off easy, since she was the new head of Slytherin this year.

"Now children, nothing more to see! You'd best hurry along now, especially you two," she said in a girly voice, indicating Rose and Scorpius. "Wouldn't want to be late for detention with dear old Neville, now would you?" They both wanted to yell at her, but knew she was right. They headed along the corridors towards the classroom where Longbottom had told them to go. They walked on opposite sides of the hall, looking away from each other, saying nothing, not wanting to get into another fight.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The worst detention EVER!

The two managed the next week or so of school quite nicely. They did loose some points, which was, despite their looks and brains, making them extremely unpopular in Ravenclaw, but they lost FAR less than the previous week. They weren't sure if they should be proud of the improvement or disappointed that they had each lost over 200 points for their house before the end of September.

Rose and Scorpius were where they always were at 3 o clock on Friday, Saturday and Sundays: walking to detention. They reached their usual destination. They now had detention in an unused classroom on the fourth floor, because id had been determined that no classroom with magical objects of any kind would be a wise place to put the two together in. They walked in the door, only to find Professor Longbottom getting ready to leave.

"Ah! There you are!" he said, cheery as ever. "I have a meeting in the staff room so…"

"We can go?" cut in Scorpius, sounding hopeful.

"No, I'm afraid not," replied Longbotton, chuckling. "I'm just going to lock you two in here!"

There was an odd pause in which Rose and Scorpius wondered vaguely if they were supposed to laugh, before they realized it wasn't a joke.

"Will we be doing lines?" asked Rose.

"Hmmmm… no! I think being locked in here together should be sufficient punishment!" he sounded far too cheery.

"Yeah! If you want us to kill each other!" said Rose, not a hint of sarcasm or humor in her tone.

"Valid point, Rosie," said Longbottom, flicking his wand absentmindedly as he did so. "That's why I'll be taking these!" Their wands flew directly into his waiting hands, and he left smiling to himself. (a/n is it just me or are all the professors we've met so far EVIL!?)

*an hour or so later*

"Your turn, Weasel. Truth or dare?" asked Scorpius. (a/n they are the most pathetic people ever! )

"Truth," replied Rose for the tenth time that evening. They had decided to play truth or dare when it was established that there was a charm placed on the room so fist fights were out of the question.

"um…who do you like?" he said nonchalantly.

"E-EXCUSE M-ME!?!?" Rose sputtered, caught completely off guard by the personal question.

"Makes for good blackmail, and you _have_ to answer," explained Scorpius, as though to a five-year-old.

"I don't _have _to answer anything, Malfoy! And what are you, seven!? That was the most immature…"

"you gonna answer or aren't you? Cause if you aren't then we should think of something better to do, say… try to brake down the door. You wouldn't make a bad battering ram…"

"FINE! I like…" the rest of the words were in a mumble…she blushed heavily.

"Was that 'myamdewroood' I heard? I don't think that's a name, Weas-"

"ANDREW WOOD!" Shouted Rose, blushing that outstanding blush she had inherited from her father from head to toe.

Scorpius burst out laughing. "Andrew Wood!?!? THE _HUFFELPUFF _TEAMS CAPTAIN?" he was referring to the amazing goal keeping abilities Andrew had inherited from his father. He was the youngest team captain in Hogwarts history.

"You like quidditch?!?! _Hermione Weasley's _daughter likes QUIDDITCH?!?!" said Scorpius, still laughing as though it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.

"I may be Hermione's daughter but I'm _also _Ronald Weasley's daughter! That's how I'm gonna be the third first year to make the team this century!" At this, Scorpius laughed harder.

"We'll see who's laughing at tryouts on Tuesday!" At that, Scorpius calmed down long enough to say "You're on," before promptly resuming his laughing.

*5 minutes later*

"Ok, now that you've calmed down, truth or dare?"

"Truth," replied Scorpius.

"Who do _you_ like?" she knew it was pathetic, but she really, really wanted payback.

"Well, not _you_ if that's what you're thinking," He said with a sneer.

"Thank Merlin for that," muttered Rose glaring at him with a look that suggested that if she could, she would be beating him to a pulp.

"It's not that I dislike red hair, its just that yours is particularly unpleasant looking, and there's those freckles…Oh yeah, I also prefer _blue _eyes to those muddy brown ones…There's also that issue of you trying to attack me every chance you get." She was just about to loose all self control when he spoke completely without thinking. "I also despise girls who are smarter than me." It took him a moment to realize his mistake, before he blushed and tried to recover. "I-I mean-n TRY to be sm-marter than me! Yeah! Try! Y-you could never be smarter th-than m-me…" He trailed off, under her gaze. She looked thoroughly confused. She wasn't sure whether to be mad or amused. Then she suddenly burst out laughing.

"Were you s-s-t-t-st-stut-tering!?!?" she asked, with a mocking stutter. He blushed and looked away, as her big, brown eyes filled with tears of laughter. "Oh Merlin! You're _BLUSHING _too!?!?" He was really _not_ amused by this. "You!? Scorpius Malfoy, blush and stutter?!?" she said, slightly recovering.

"Tell ANYONE and I will HEX you!" She calmed herself, looking into his angry face. She nodded.

"As long as you _never_ tell anyone that I like Andrew."

"Agreed."

Suddenly an evil smile appeared on Rose's pretty face. "Speaking of which, you never did tell me who you like."

"Um… Nobody," he muttered, a faint, pink tint returning to his normally pale cheeks.

"It's called _truth _or dare, Malfoy! No lies allowed!"

"It's not a lie! All of the mildly good looking girls are clingly and annoying and any other acceptable girls are either hideous or think I'm a total prat!" 'Like you,' added Scorpius inwardly. He could never admit it, but he did have a lot of respect for the redhead sitting next to him. 'But I most certainly do NOT _like _her!' he thought angrily.

"If all of the girls with nice personalities _hate _you, what do you think that says about _you_?" she said, rolling her eyes at him. 'I'm sure if he wasn't so bloody egocentric that wouldn't be a problem!' she thought, 'EVERYONE in the school thinks he's gorgeous!...with good reason, but still!' she knew all of the girls who called him hot all the time were right, and she secretly admired his brains, but he could just be SO ANNOYING ALL THE TIME!

"Anyway, I have no idea what you're talking about. _Everyone LOVES you!_" she blurted out angrily.

"Well, not _everyone_," said Scorpius. "I can think of at least one redheaded, half-blooded little weasel that _obviously_ doesn't love me."

"Well, no surprises there, seeing as you are the single most irritating human being I have ever had the misfortune to be locked in a bloody dungeon with!" She shouted, turning red, but this time from anger.

"Well then we're even, aren't we!? Because you are the most annoying, no-it-all, snobby, ugly, BRAT, I HAVE EVER MET!" Shouted Scorpius. "And you think everyone loves ME!? Look who's talking! You're RONALD AND HERMIONE WEASLEY'S DAUGHTER! YOU'RE THE CHILD OF TWO OF THE MOST FAMOUS WAR HEROES ALIVE TODAY!"

"IT'S BETTER THAN BEING THE ONLY CHILD OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS _DEATH EATERS_ ALIVE TODAY!"

"AND YOU THINK I' BLOODY PROUD OF THAT!? I'M ALWAYS EITHER LIVING IN HIS SHADOW OR IN SHAME! IT'S _ALWAYS_ EITHER 'You must be so proud of how your Father has become sooo successful since the war! Do you intend to join the family business?' OR 'LOOK OUT! IT'S M-MALFOY! BE CAREFUL! HE MIGHT USE AN UNFORGIVABLE CURSE ON US!' NOBODY SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO COMPREHEND THE IDEA THAT _MAYBE_ I'M NOT MY FATHER! MAYBE I DON'T THINK IT'S SO GREAT THAT HE TORTURED THE GOBLINS INTO GIVING HIM GRINGROTTS! MAYBE I'M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE THERE! MAYBE I DON'T _ENJOY _GETTING TORTURED EVERY TIME I'M NOT THE PERFECT LITTLE SON HE WANTS! MAYBE I'M NOT MY BLOODY FATHER! EVER THINK OF THAT, WEASEL? HUH? EVER THINK OF THAT!?!?" He turned around swiftly and started pounding his fist against the wall. Rose was completely at a loss for what to say.

"H-he…your father, I mean, h-he tortured you?" she said, in a timid voice, barely audible over the Scorpius's cries.

"Yeah! You wouldn't know anything about that, now would you, weasel!?" he shot back, finally giving up, and just collapsing against the wall.

"No. No, I wouldn't." he looked up, at hearing how shaky her voice sounded, and was very surprised to se tears in her eyes. "I've never been tortured. But I don't think it's f-fair for you to assume I like living in my parents shadow any more than you do. I-I hate it that people always expect me to be some sort of hero. I hate it that I am obligated to be the best in every class because of my mother. I hate it that I was _supposed _to have been a Gryfindor. I think I understand b-better than you thi-"

"Not you don't! Your family was fine with you being in Ravenclaw! I bet they were bloody proud! My father isn't even talking to me and the moment I get home for the holidays he's going to torture me some more!" Scorpius even surprised himself. He had _never _been this open with anyone about anything before, least of all his family.

"For once, I am trying to sympathize with you, Malfoy, but I'm finding that very hard seeing as you don't seem to want people to understand! You love being misunderstood and you hate that somebody just _might_ know what you're going through!"

"BUT YOU DON'T!"  
"I SWEAR I AM THIS CLOSE TO…GAH!" she shouted, making violent gestures with her arms.

"FINE THEN! I DARE YOU!"

"Dare me to what?!"

"ATTACK ME! SEE IF I CARE!"

"YOU BLOODY WELL KNOW I _CAN'T _ATTACK YOU, OR YOU WOULD ALREADY BE COWERING IN FRIGHT!"

"I ALSO KNOW THAT YOU CAN'T TURN DOWN A DARE! Or have you forgotten about our game?"

"What!?"

"Truth or _dare!" _

"You haven't asked me yet!"

"Asked you what!?!?"

"TRUTH OR DARE!"

"FINE, TRUTH OR DARE!?"

"_DARE!" _

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU! ATTACK ME! ATTACK ME, IF YOU HAVE THE NERVE!"

"_GLADLY!"_ And with that she launched herself across the room and punched him in the face as hard as she could.

As soon as her fist made contact with Scorpius's left cheek bone, there was a sizzling noise, and the two leapt apart. They had known this would happen because they had tried it earlier. Apparently Professor Longbottom was smarter than he looked.

"YOU MORON!" shouted rose, "YOU KNEW THAT THAT WOULD HAPPEN!"

"SO DID YOU!"

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DARED ME TO DO IT!"

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO ACTUALLY _DID _DO IT!"

With that, Rose leapt at him again, this time aiming her punch at his stomach. This time, neither of them recoiled when the burning came, but rather, intensified the fight until they were completely numb to the burn.

The fight went back and forth. Neither of the two had any experience, but they were both strong from quiditch training. First Scorpius would have Rose caught firmly in a headlock, then suddenly, Rose would have her opponent pined to the wall by the throat.

*15 minutes later*

Longbottom walked calmly along the corridor, humming a little tune as he went. He glanced down at his watch.

'That time already?' he thought to himself, seeing that the two children had been in detention for over 3 hours. 'I hope they haven't gone and gotten into to much trouble,' he though as he muttered "alohamora" to open the door. The instant he stepped inside, he knew he should've just put up a shield charm instead of the burning one he had used. Rose was huddled in the far corner of the room, apparently unconscious, while Scorpius was closer to the door, leaning against the wall for support, cringing slightly from the numerous burns he had received.

"I…Loathe…You…" was all he said, before he collapsed into a pile of robes and blood.

The next thing either of them remembered was waking up in what they assumed was the hospital wing. They were bandaged and in bed and could see Madame Pomfry, the very old, very fussy healer, walking by, so, yeah, it was probably the hospital wing.

"What could you possibly have been thinking, Neville!?" she exclaimed looking at Professor Longbottom, accusatorily.

"Well…"

"USING SUCH AND INHUMANE CHARM ON THESE POOR CHILDREN!"

"Well…in all fairness, most children their age would have learned after the first burn. And most other children their age wouldn't have the endurance to keep fighting long enough to sustain injuries like these…how amazing…" he muttered the last part, but Madame Pomfry, though old, had very sharp hearing.

With a sharp "thwap!" she rapped him over the head with a bottle of an orange potion of some sort.

"Ah! Awake I see," she said, looking at Rose and Scorpius, who had just started sitting up gingerly in their beds. Madame Pomfry simply shoved them back into bed roughly, hurting them slightly when she touched a burn.

"You're in no condition to be up! While I put partial blame on your Professor over here, I must say that that was possibley the worst display of immature nonsense I have ever seen! And drink this," she said, indicating the two glasses of orange liquid she had just poured them. "It'll help with the burns," she said, as they looked suspiciously at the potion, which smelled strongly of rotten pineapple (a/n the most horrifying smell known to man).


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Quidditch

They were out of the hospital wing by Monday. They were sore and covered with healing scars from their burns, but they were better. By Tuesday they had actually managed to socialize and make some friends. They had also started doing much better in class, even potions, and had only lost small amounts of points at a time, for silly things like name calling. This improvement was all due to the fact that they had reached some sort of unspoken truce. After their little game of truth or dare, they had both reached the same conclusion: save the fight for the quidditch field. In other words, they're war was temporarily not the center of their lives and it was making things better for everyone, particularly Al.

Albus, being Rose's cousin and best friend, had really worried about her. He had spent the entire weekend in the hospital wing and was still asking her if she was ok every now and then. Another strange thing that happened over his weekend with his cousin, besides him becoming over-protective, was that he and Scorpius started to get along. It was strange, but Scorpius was finding that he quite liked the scrawny guy, and was really impressed at how his big green eyes never seemed to stop looking at Rose in a caring way. He was certainly dedicated, and Scorpius couldn't deny that. Anyway, they talked a bit during the time when Rose slept, as both of them preferred to stay up, and found that they got along very well. It was really strange for everyone.

It was Tuesday afternoon, and potions class was just ending.

"Good luck, Weasel," jeered Scorpius as he stood from his seat, two over from Rose.

"Like _I_ would need it, Malfoy," replied Rose, spitting out his name like it was a disgusting swear.

Albus just sighed from between the two, as he packed up his books. "Honestly guys, I don't get why you two fight. You really have a lot in comm-" he cut off, noticing the glare he was getting from his two friends (yup, Scorpy's considered a friend now!). "Um…right. Best of luck to both of you…see you on the field!" and with that he hurried off to a tall, blond girl with an upturned nose who had been waiting in the hall. They walked off holding hands.

As they headed off to change for tryouts Rose got curious about the girl. "Who was _that?"_ she asked Lavender Corner, one of her new friends (a/n yup, Lavender Jr. it kinda sucks for her. I mean everyone else gets a famous dead war hero and/or relative's name and she gets…Lavender. Tough luck. She got the narcissistic mom who names her daughter after herself even though Michael ((yes Michael Corner)) was in favor of "Sarah")

"That's Alison Smith. She and your brother started dating last Thursday. She's a year above us."

"How is it, you know this and I don't?" asked Rose, slightly bemused.

"Wouldn't you like to know," replied Andy (a/n yeah, Lavender sucks, so now it's "Andy" for short ((I refuse to do "lavlav" as Harry said in book 6))) with an impish grin. The truth was, Rose knew, that she was just ridiculously popular and knew everything there was to know. It was a useful talent but nobody ever trusted her with anything personal. It was and unwritten rule.

"Whatever," said Rose curtly, and they continued on, towards the quidditch field.

Now, there's something you should know about this field: it is not the one you all know and love. It is ten times better. It is also about ten times bigger. The old one got completely demolished in the war, so the school built a new one. In fact, Hogwarts had closed down for several years in order for them to fix all of the damage, and as long as they were at it, they decided to make some minor renovations as well. None of them were more noticeable then the quidditch field. It was the envy of all the other wizarding schools in Europe.

This field was not school sized; it was the size _real_ quidditch fields were. The sport was becoming increasingly popular, so now, in addition to games between Hogwarts houses, there were also games between schools throughout Europe. Most of these took place in Hogwarts, so during the renovation, they had set up a system with the flue network and the quidditch branches of the Ministry that allowed them to travel between schools easily. They had also put in seating for several hundred people. It was the finest school field in all of Europe, by far.

Yes, this was the field that greeted Rose and Andy (a/n it just occurred to me that there is no way Andy could be short for Lavender and still make any sense, but I would just like you to know that I don't care) as they walked into the stadium for the first time. They both gasped in awe, but recovered quickly. They had heard about it from their relatives after all.

A tall, dark-haired man stood in the center of the field. It was Coach Krum, who even the first years recognized. Everyone had been sad when Madame Hooch had retired, but they were all fine when they saw the replacement she had chosen. They boys of Hogwarts had been amazed that _the _Victor Krum, one of the most famous seekers _ever,_ had come to their school. His stern look changed into a soft, affectionate one when he saw Rose. Though he and her father hadn't gotten along well in their school days, he maintained a close friendship with Rose's mother and eventually developed a friendship with Ron as well. In fact, it was mostly her parent's persuasion that had convinced him to come to Hogwarts.

He walked across the huge field and gave Rose a big hug. He wasn't usually one for publicly displaying affection, but he had really come to think of Rose as family. He had trained her in quidditch, after all, and since she was 6 she had been like a neice to him. "You know, Rosie," he said, with his thick accent, "I would just give you the place on the team right now and save all these other students some time and embarrassment, but sadly, I am just here to watch. Play your best, and don't forget what I taught you this summer!" he said, ruffling her naturally messy hair.

Rose giggled and walked off to meet the Ravenclaw team captain, ignoring the screams of jealousy she was getting from the girls in the crowd.

"Hey, everybody," said a handsome, Asian fifth year, when all the people trying out were seated. "I'm Cedric, and I'm going to be some lucky 7 of you lot are going to be on my team." He looked mostly at the older students, hinting that he didn't think the first years had what it took. It had become more common for first years to make the team, and the stupid rule about not being allowed brooms had been lifted, but they were still taken a lot less seriously.

Rose and Scorpius sat next to each other, miraculously staying calm. They watched the others trying out and spat an occasional insult or challenge at the other, waiting for their turn. Rose cheered when Louis flew, but other than that, showed little emotion.

"Beaters!" called Cedric. "You're up!"

At that, Scorpius, Rose, and 7 other students, most of them 3-7 years, rose from the bench, looking nervous.

"Scared, Weasley?"

"You wish."

They both stole one more malicious glance at the other, before mounting two, identical, Firebolt 20s. They waited with bated breath, barely moving or blinking, and then "TWEEEEEEEEET!" came Coach Krum's whistle, and they leapt into the air, like birds, swooping gracefully toward the two bludgers that had been released. They swung their bats wildly, one player getting hit hard in the head. One down.

While all the other players were flying aimlessly, trying to hit a bludger, Rose and Scorpius were already in complete control of one of them, and were currently at war. 'Bloody Weasel isn't bad!' thought Scorpius angrily, launching the bludger at Rose's head with vicious force. 'I _hate, hate, hate, HATE _to say it, but he's actually…ok!' thought Rose loathingly, dodging the bludger with amazing grace and expertise, sending it directly back towards Scorpius.

Meanwhile, Cedric was watching the tryouts interestedly, but only really seeing Rose and Scorpius. The two were obviously phenomenal, and even though their amazing shots were clearly nothing short of murderous attacks, Cedric was sure they would be amazing together… with time and practice. He signaled for the Coach to blow the whistle again, signaling that tryouts were over. He had his beaters.

The six beaters who were still conscious soared down and landed gracefully on the grass.

"Great job today! Really, fantastic flying, everyone!" said Cedric once everyone was settled down. "Now," he continued, pulling out a clipboard, "the following people made the team: Alex, you're gonna be our seeker!" he said, to much enthusiasm and cheering. "Hannah, Carol and Louis, you're our brand new chasers!" More cheers. Rose gave Louis a big hug. "I'll be staying as the keeper, of coarse, so that leaves our beaters…" Rose and Scorpius waited for a tense moment before he said "Rose and Scorpius, you are the two most talented first years I have ever met, and I think you two would be amazing. My only wish is that you vent some of that intense competitive spirit you've just demonstrated for us on the _other team_." There were some laughs from the people sitting next to them, followed by a rush of cheers from the audience as Cedric told them when the practices were and such.

'Oh no…' thought Scorpius, as he saw his friends gathering around him, though he barely acknowledged them.

'This cannot be happening,' thought Rose, ignoring her friends and family who were crowding her and clapping her on the back. 'Something is seriously not right…' It wasn't until James started babbling about how he got hold of some fire whiskey for the party that night to celebrate the new team, and also mentioning that he and the rest of the family would be crashing this party. She had no objections to them being there, but the part about the fire whiskey woke her up. She wandered off, yelling at James for being so irresponsible.

After congratulating Rose, who was still slightly gloomy, Albus walked over to the thinning crowd of Scorpius and his friends.

"Heeeey, Scorp! Congrats!" He said cheerily, clapping Scorpius on the back.

"What did I tell you about _nicknames?"_ replied Scorpius irritably.

"I thought you just hated _'Scorp__**y.**__'_ Man, you're kinda scary when Ms. Muffy calls you that. But what's wrong with 'Scorp?' it sounds coooool…' whined Al to his new friend.

Scorpius just grunted for a reply. Al took this as a "fine, whatever."

"Anyway, why so gruuumpy!?!? You made the teeaaaam! You still wont have a chance against Slytherin with yours truly as their brilliant seeker, and there's nooooo way you or anyone will beat Gryffindor since all of their players are Weasleys or Potters, but you should still be cheery! There's always Huffelpuff!" Said Al, somewhat mockingly, even though he knew why he was grumpy.

Scorpius just glared at him in a don't-ask-dumb-questions-cause-they're-annoying-and-you-know-the-answer kind of way.

"Fine! Rose may not be _exactly _your…_ideal_ partner, but maybe this is good! You two could… you know, get over your differences? Make amends…that kind of thing…" said Al, trailing off under the intense glare he was receiving from his blonde friend. 'How did this kid _ever_ manage to be in Slytherin…' thought Scorpius vaguely, as he told Al to shut up and go away. He said it, but in an _almost _affectionate manner, not being cruel. He was just mildly unhappy at the moment.

*Later, at the party*

"Come on, Rosie. You were amazing. Really, you did _not_ loose. You made the team. He said you were the _best first year he had __**ever seen!**_" said Louis in a comforting tone. He usually had a knack for cheering her up, but tonight she was really just waiting for the party to get started. She was also wondering what fire whiskey would taste like, and if she would have a chance at being a prefect if she was caught trying some.

"He said that about Scorpius too," she said gloomily.

"He was! He was phenomenal, and you can't deny it!"

"I can't! AND THAT'S WHAT MAKES ME MAD!"

"Thanks Weasley," said a smug voice, who was listening from a nearby arm chair. "You weren't _terrible_. And indecently, since when have we been on first name terms, _Rose?_" 'It would be just dumb if I told her that she was amazing…' he thought, looking away from Rose's flushed face and toward the door. "Oh, and I think I hear the rest of your annoying family out there."

Rose was about to retort, before she realized he was quite right. There were confused voices coming from somewhere behind the door, and she could recognize Roxanne and Fred's, the two loudest of the bunch.

"I DON'T BLOODY KNOW WHAT THE MEANING OF LIFE IS, YOU DUMB BIRD!" Shouted Roxanne as Rose opened the door.

"It's fine. I'll just let you in. But for future reference, it's forty-two," said Rose in an exasperated voice. Her cousins looked at her, baffled.

Now the party got interesting. With Albus, Roxanne, Fred and James at a party there was no way not to have a good time. That's not to say Molly, Lucy, Louis, and Rose were boring, it was just that the "new marauders" were among the least boring human beings ever to walk the earth. In their first year Roxanne and Fred had found the kitchen. More specifically, they found it in their first month, along with the room of requirement. They were, therefore, in charge of the food. The house elves had grown to like them a lot over the last few years. Sometimes the two would even bring some clothes as payment, as these house elves weren't enslaved, but paid employees, due to the relatively recent law Rose's mom had helped pass.

Everyone gaped at all the food, but more specifically, the butterbeer and fire whiskey.

"Want one, Scorp?" asked Al, opening a bottle of fire whiskey.

"We aren't even old enough to drink butterbeer! I'm 7 years too young, so no thanks."

"Who cares!?" said Al, taking a long swig, gaging slightly, and looking up, eyes watering a bit. "Where's the fun in waiting _7 years!?_ And it's not completely illegal. This lot paid for it," he gestured at Roxanne and Fred, who were already starting a drinking game with some of the older students (a/n the twins are fifteen. They are also slightly psychotic, and a very bad example.) "Well, if you call a pair of old socks _payment_. Honestly, we're supposed to be the _marauders_ and they're paying for our fire whiskey even though it's illegal anyway…I just don't get them…" 'Well,' thought Scorpius, 'That answers my question. That's why he's in Slytherin…' Then he saw something that lightened his mood considerably: Rose being chased around the common room by James, who was brandishing a bottle of butterbeer as though it was a weapon. Though she had been considering it, she decided that she had gotten in far too much trouble anyway, and would not take part in anything illegal.

And that's pretty much how the party passed until 1 in the morning. Complete and utter chaos, but everyone had fun.

*2 am*

Scorpius sat in an arm chair, not wanting to leave the common room. He wasn't particularly tired. He was also enjoying watching his sworn enemy sleep. Rose had fallen asleep in the couch next to his arm chair, and was showing no signs of waking. He was just thinking he she looked so different from the annoying girl who was the bane of his existence when she slept, when it occurred to him this reminded him of something he had read in a book. 'Oh yeah,' he thought, 'it was in that Twilight book…that creepy Edmond guy or whatever… he was staring at Bell…' at that thought he looked away, not wanting to be a creepy stalker like that guy. He had read the book because he enjoyed reading popular fantasy books to see what muggles thought magic was like. He came to the conclusion that the book was poorly written and by an author who knew even less about real vampires than an average muggle. He burned the book after he finished it.

As he was no longer looking at the beautiful sleeping figure of Rose, he looked at the only other thing there: the wreckage that had previously been their common room. He wondered for a moment who cleaned things like this up every night, before a tiny, old, round-nosed house elf poked her (he _thought _it was a girl) head around the corner of the couch.

"Hello, there," he said amiably. The little elf squeaked shrilly and scurried away. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you…"

"Winky is sorry, sir," squeaked the elf, Winky. "Winky did not know there would be anybody this early in the morning." She bowed and started to walk away.

"Don't leave! I can't help you…with this mess. I feel slightly responsible. I was one of the people who they threw the party for. I would feel bad if you cleaned it up by yourself."

"OH NO! YOU MUSTN'T!" she shouted.

"SHHH!" said Scorpius, gesturing at Rose. He honestly wasn't sure why he cared, but he didn't want to wake her.

"Winky is soooo sorry! I would never wake her, sir. Never," whispered Winky so quietly, she was barely audible.

In the end, Scorpius convinced her to let him help and they began to attack the mess.

Winky was in the midst of cleaning when she grabbed a butterbeer that was still almost full. Under the pretense of putting it into her trash bag, shi slipped it quietly into her dirty old blouse. She was sneaky, but Scorpius was very perceptive.

"I've heard those are extremely bad for elves," he said nonchalantly.

"Right you are, sir. Right you are…" muttered Winky, removing the bottle from her clothes hesitantly, but making no move to throw it away.

"Give it here," he said commandingly, reaching across the coffee table to get it. She obeyed cautiously, as though she expected a beating.

"Everyone says Winky shouldn't drink. The miss in the couch, her mother told me so over 20 years ago…and I still have trouble sometimes…her parents are good people."

Rose had been waking up for a while now, and was greeted with the sight of Scorpius on his hands and knees, with a trash bag, helping a poor old elf with her work, and comforting her about her drinking problems. She was slightly agitated at this. Anything about Scorpius that wasn't incriminating agitated her. She was supposed to despise him, and now, dare I say it, she was starting to kind of _like him._ (a/n not like as in crush. Like as in friend.

"Yeah. I've heard she comes from a great family. Her parents are ok, I suppose. They did help save us all. They saved my dad, you know. He never seems to be grateful. I didn't even know until I read the new edition of Hogwarts: a History. He taught me to hate them, but they can't be all bad, can they?" he said to Winky, who was only half listening.

Rose had had enough. She quietly removed herself from the couch and ran up the stairs to her dorm. Scorpius looked up just in time to see her red hair disappear around the corner and to know that she had heard what he said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Rejection

Rain poured from the sky as the teams swooped around the field blindly. Hannah was currently being beaten to the ground by one of the bludgers, courtesy of Roxanne and Fred, after scoring a goal. It wasn't long until she was knocked right off her broom, falling the 50 feet to the ground, where Madame Pomfrey was already waiting.

Now it was Rose's turn. She particularly liked Hannah, and since it was her family, she was perfectly fine with beating them to a pulp with the bludger. (she's crazy) She glanced at Scorpius, who swerved 20 feet to his left and intercepted a bludger that was flying toward Louis. He deflected it perfectly and sent it directly to Rose, who swung her bat hard, sending it flying at Roxanne's chest. Suddenly Fred came out of nowhere as fast as lightning, forcing the bludger, once again, toward Louis, who dodged skillfully.

"Nice try, little cousin!" said Fred, as he cut off Rose, who was flying toward the part of the field where the bludgers were terrorizing her teammates.

"_You_ might want to work on your aim!" she said fiercely, gesturing at the intact Louis. She smirked, swerved, and hit a bludger directly at Jame's turned back, hitting it's mark perfectly. He staggered, surprised by the sudden force, but recovered after a moment. The commentator was saying something about how nice a shot it was, but it was still drowned out by the wind and the rain.

Scorpius glanced at the scoreboard. 50 to 50. They had to pull ahead some time. It was clear that they had a well chosen team since they could manage to even keep up with the Weasley/Potter team (usually known as the Gryffindor team), But they needed to pull ahead. He knew that Alex was a very talented seeker, but there was honestly no competition between him and James. Even with james still slightly winded from the bludger, the Gryffindors would have a clear win unless they were 150 points or more ahead.

It seemed impossible. It was already a really long game, but it was still getting nowhere. Both teams were down to two chasers, Gryffindor had a slightly injured seeker (their best player) and Ravenclaws keeper (their best player) was also injured. They kept going back and forth. You would hear the faint sound of Amelia, the commentator, shouting "100-80, Gryffindor!" but only a moment later it will have changed to "100-80, Ravenclaw!"

"This is bloody useless!" shouted Scorpius to Rose over the sound of the crowds cheering. They may not like it, but they had managed to put their differences aside while on the field. This was their second game (they had won against Huffelpuff) and by now the two worked perfectly as a pair, but only while in the air. "There is no way to win! We need to get someone on their team! Someone they need to win!"

"Molly!" replied Rose, also shouting. "She's their keeper, and she's amazing, but she's slow! They need her to win! Slowness runs in their family," she said, gesturing at Lucy, who was on the ground, her arm in a sling.

Scorpius nodded, seeing that she was right, and passed her the bludger. They flew up the field, passing along the way, dodging Roxanne and Fred, who were trying to gain possession of their bludger. They almost had it, when Scorpius passed quickly to Rose. She swung the bat with all her might and the bludger collided hard with Molly's left shoulder, throwing her off balance and hurling her off her broom. The crowd cheered wildly, as though they had already won. Rose and Scorpius high fived, making it look almost like they were friends, to someone who didn't know better. The instant Molly hit the ground, Louis had scored. It was he and Carol, who had been passing the quaffel within the scoring area, keeping it in their possession, and making it legal to attack the keeper.

After this, the game turned around completely. Gryffindor still played amazingly, scoring numerous times, but with two players down, one hurt, and the game having gone on for almost two and a half hours, they were tiring quickly. Ravenclaw, on the other hand, seemed to only get stronger as the game went on, exhilarated by the sudden advantage they had. They scored over and over again, the blue part of the crowd roaring with enthusiasm.

It was then, when Ravenclaw where 160 points ahead, the score 370-210, that James caught sight of a little glint of gold. He knew there was no way they could win, and prolonging the game would only make their loss worse, so he dived at the snitch with all the speed he could muster. The whistle blew. The game was over. For the first time since James had joined the team in his first year, the Gryffindore team had been defeated by another Hogwarts team.

"You were great!" said Scorpius happily as he and Rose landed next to each other.

"You were too!" she replied with equal enthusiasm.

They stood next to each other for just a moment more, grinning, before they remembered that they were supposed to hate each other, and they walked in opposite directions.

There were hugs, congratulations, and the teams went over to see the ones who were healing. Coach Krum came over with Al, to tell Scorpius and Rose how amazing they had been. They had won the game for their house. It was their victory.

After the excitement died down a bit, the teams headed to their respective locker rooms. Rose changed quickly and rushed out of the lockers just in time to see Andrew Wood heading toward the castle. Feeling suddenly confident, she strode up to him to tell him that she liked him. It was as simple as that!

"Hey Andrew!" she called once she was near enough to him.

"Hey Weasley! Great game today! You and Malfoy really work well together. I must say, I'm surprised."

"Yeah! So am I," she replied, laughing a bit, blush already starting to appear on her ears. "Um sooo…" she looked around awkwardly. "Terrible weather for a game, though, isn't it?" she said casually, suddenly aware that it was still raining hard.

"Yeah, in fact I'd really rather get out of this weather. What did you want to say? Then we can head in."

"Um………." She looked at her feet, feeling a lot less confident.

Scorpius, meanwhile, was leaning on the outside of the changing rooms, protected from the rain, watching the scene unfold from afar. As he was aware of Rose's feeling for the older boy, he had a good idea what was happening. In fact, he could see Rose blushing from here. He continued to watch amusedly as she looked around for something to say, he replied, clearly unimpressed, and she looked down, blushing intensely. He was sure that she was worried over nothing. She was decent looking, smart, and great at quidditch. He loved quidditch, so he knew they had something in common. It surprised him, therefore, when he saw her look up, almost angrily, and shout something at him (presumably "I like you") and he looked completely bewildered. He blushed too now, looking around awkwardly, wondering how to answer. He was then saved the trouble, when a pretty, auburn haired huffelpuff girl came out of the castle and dragged him inside, affectionately holding his hand and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Scorpius was furious! Not on Rose's behalf (that's what he wanted to think anyway) but rather, because Andrew hadn't even had the courtesy to say anything! He clearly didn't even try to explain that he had a girlfriend! And this, no doubt, would make Rose miserable, and therefore even more unpleasant to be around. He decided he had had enough spying, and headed off toward the castle, where Rose was slumped on the steps, obviously crying.

He had planned to pass by her as though he didn't see her, and maybe "accidentally" kick some dirt into her face, but was surprised when she put out a hand and grabbed his robes to stop him.

"You s-saw didn't you?" she said, with a slight hiccup and a bit of a stutter. He was about to tell her that she was really a hypocrite when it came to blushing and stuttering, but catching sight of her tearstained face and bloodshot eyes, he couldn't.

Then he surprised even himself, by sitting down next to her, and letting her lean on his shoulder.

"Yeah. I saw. And I think he acted like a coward…and…and you can do better…I mean," he said, not wanting to be too nice, "there must be someone _somewhere_ who likes you. Maybe." He said the last part as an insult, but it lacked the usual spite in his voice. She continued to sob, leaning into Scorpius's robes. He awkwardly put his arm around her, knowing it was dumb, but not being able to think of anything better to do. Instead they just sat there in the rain, in awkward silence, waiting for the tears to slow.

*one week or so later in potions class*

The two had been avoiding each other carefully for almost a week now. The teachers accepted it without question, merely grateful for the peace and quiet, and the students just muttered about it, as confused as anyone. Only Al knew why the two had seemed so awkward lately, but he would never tell them that he had been watching through a crack in the door the whole time, listening with an old extendable ear he had found in the attic. Anyway, since that day, Albus had devoted a good portion of his time to a new project. He called it "Operation Secretly Make My Cousin And Best Friend Like Each Other!" He was not the most creative namer, but I suppose that runs in his blood, as he and both his siblings were named after dead people (AWESOME DEAD PEOPLE!). He had been trying to lessen the awkward level over the last few days, and had decided it was time they started talking again.

"I think I'm going to go find Lizzy and see if she would like to skip the next class with me!" he said, cheerfully. Rose argued with him, but he couldn't be stopped, and once they reached the potions class, he kept walking in the direction of Elizabeth's, his _new_ girlfriend (He was popular), class.

This left Rose to enter the class alone, taking the seat two over from Scorpius, leaving one empty between them. Ms. Muffy grinned, seeing that "Aly" wasn't there to keep the peace. That meant her two favorite students to pick on would be easy targets. She scanned through her potions book, picking one she hadn't planned on teaching for several weeks. It was tricky, but would do nicely for provoking the young students.

"Today we will be doing the Draft of Anger," she said in a spooky voice. "When drunk, it makes the drinker extremely unpleasant and moody. Even the smell is enough to put someone in a bad mood, so try to breath through your mouths!" She spoke cheerfully, and then exited to her office, not really caring what happened until the fight. She was crazy. Literally, she had spent several months in St. Mungo's a few years back, for being completely insane. Now she was only kind of crazy, but crazy nonetheless.

*15 minutes later*

They had successfully finished adding the ingredients. Now came the hard part. This potion was very strange, because it required two people to hold hands and chant an incantation. Rose and Scorpius had matured a fair amount lately, and were sure they could hold hands without turning it into a fist fight, but it was sure to be very awkward.

Holding hands, they said the incantation, both blushing slightly, with their eyes closed. Then they proceeded to the next part: taking turns naming something that made them mad.

"Cowards," started Scorpius, reminding them both of what he had said about Andrew, making Rose blush.

"Abuse," said Rose, making them remember Scorpius's outburst from several weeks before. He too blushed a bit.

"Hypocrites," he said pointedly, referring to Rose's stuttering.

"Self-centeredness," she said, obviously talking about Scorpius.

"Crybabies."

"Idiots."

"Ugly gingers!"

"Dumb blondes!"

"Now, now," came a new voice from behind them. "I think you've listed quite enough things you hate for the potion to work very well! I would love to let the creative flow continue, but I'm afraid class has ended!" said Ms. Muffy, gesturing to the empty class room. "Oh, and ten points for being offensive to red-heads and blondes."

As they walked down the hall towards their common room, Rose stopped, putting a hand on Scorpius's shoulder, stopping him too.

"I didn't mean what I said…about you being dumb…" she said, uncharacteristically shy.

"Well that's obvious, as I am among the least dumb blondes I have ever known."

"And…let's not fight, 'kay?" she said in a hopeful, slightly uncomfortable voice.

He gave her an appraising look for a moment, before saying "why?"

"It…um… lowers our grades! It makes our house loose points! It makes quidditch harder…and I never really thanked you for being…so…nice last week…after the quidditch game." She looked extremely uncomfortable now, and left out the last part about how she didn't actually dislike him anymore, for fear of sounding like an even bigger idiot.

"Sure," he said, casually. "Whatever." He started to keep walking, before turning around to Rose, who was a few feet behind him, and saying "and about last week…forget about it. It was nothing."

Al, who was just around the corner, listening to them, smirked. Step one: SUCCESS!

"Al!" called Lizzy from down the corridor. He ran to catch up, pausing for a moment to look down the hall. He caught Rose's eye and winked, grinning.


	7. Chapter 7

"YOU DID WHAT!!!!!!?????" shouted Andy loudly for the entire common room to hear.

"I honestly don't see what the big deal is. We aren't sworn enemies anymore. We made a truce."

"YES BU-" she started, and quieted when Rose shushed her. "But why!? You hate him! I haven't got a problem with him... he's smart, athletic and gorgeous…also he really isn't that bad."

"Hence the truce."

"You stopped fighting because he's gorgeous!?!?"

"We stopped fighting because he isn't that bad!" Rose said in a bored voice.

"You two should really try to get along!" said Andy in a matter-of-fact way.

"I just told you we are not enemies anymore!" said Rose, rolling her eyes.

"That's your definition of getting along? I mean like friends! You two have a lot in common. Like I said: Smart, athletic, gorgeous, nice, awesome…"

"You never said he was nice or awesome. I thought we agreed on not bad."

"And nice and awesome!" she said in a bubbly voice. "Anyway, I think he liiiiiikes yooooou!" she continued, half mockingly, half serious.

"Shut up."

*other side of the common room (not within earshot ((thank god)))*

'Oh my god. She thanked me. And she said we should stop fighting…' Scorpius was lost in thought. He had no idea what was going on. In all honesty he had no problem with Rose personally, but except for today and that time the previous week, she had clearly despised him. The only reason he didn't like her was because he wasn't allowed too. He was supposed to be better than her. He was supposed to beat her. He was supposed to be in Slytherin, with her in Gryffindor and beat her in every quidditch game. In stead, they were beaters together. They were lab partners. They had been through countless detentions together. They had shared their deepest secrets and troubles with each other. She had cried on his shoulder in the rain for an hour straight and he was OK WITH IT! HE COMFORTED HER! AND WORST OF ALL, HE WAS ACTUALLY STARTING TO LIKE HER!

He had had enough. He was going to go to the library or something. Reading takes his mind off stuff. Maybe he'd read the next Twilight book. Now that he and Rose stopped fighting he needed something else to hate.

He got up and headed for the door. Once he was out, he walked mechanically in the direction of the library, Eclipse in hand. Half way down the corridor Albus materialized out of nowhere, right next to him. He was talking about something or another, but Scorpius didn't hear.

"Not right now, Al. I'm tired and grumpy."

"I know a peaceful place you can go to read…quieter than the library!" Al said, deciding now was the perfect time to execute part two of "Operation Secretly Make My Cousin And Best Friend Like Each Other." He told Scorpius the place, and as soon as he was out of sight, he headed in the other direction, toward Ravenclaw Tower.

When he arrived the door it asked some random question he did not know the answer to.

"I don't know, but you know that I will get in anyway, so it isn't logical for you to deny me entry!"

"Fair point," said the door, as though it actually was a decent answer.

Once he was in the common room, he walked over to Rose. Seeing that she was still being pestered by Andy, he walked over and whispered in her ear.

"I know where she'll never find you," he said, in a persuasive tone. "I'll distract her." He whispered the directions and she slipped out the door.

As the door closed behind her she heard a loud explosion go off behind her. Al was good at distracting people. She headed down the stairs, out the doors and onto the grounds. She walked in the direction Al had told her. He had said that just past Hagrid's hut, there was a beautiful tree. It was in a great place, and few knew about it. There would be the perfect place to rest in the trees shade and read. Once she passed the hut and walked a bit farther, however, she was greeted with a less pleasant sight than she had anticipated.

Just a few yards from where she was standing was a tree, as promised. It was not, however, even remotely peaceful. In fact it was currently thrashing around uncontrollably. Her first instinct was to run for her life, until she noticed something small and limp in the trees grasp. It was Scorpius.

Cursing Al under her breath, she ran forward, thinking fast. There was an obvious answer that she couldn't remember. She, unlike her mother, had never been in a situation like this where she needed to use her immense knowledge for something important. 'Think, Rose! THINK!'

"IMMOBULUS!" she shouted as soon as the thought came into her head. The tree stopped dead in its tracks, Scorpius still dangling loosely from one of its limbs. Rose hopped up onto the trees lower branches, climbed a bit to where he was trapped, and managed to untangle him. He fell and landed hard on the ground with a slight thump.

"ow…" he said in a weak voice.

"I was hoping for a thanks," said Rose, slightly sarcastically. "so this is the infamous womping willow…"

"You've heard of it," said Scorpius as he tried to support himself against the tree.

"My parents told me... but when Al said peaceful this is the last thing I expected…"

"Albus sent you here?" said Scorpius suddenly.

"Yeah. Why?" she replied.

"He sent me here too."

They looked at each other for a moment, before wordlessly striding off toward the castle, Scorpius leaning on Rose for support. It was time for Albus to pay.

Speaking of Al, he was currently sipping a cup of tea, looking amusedly out the back window of Hagrid's hut, watching the pair stumble by. "That seems to have worked nicely," he said, with an evil chuckle.

"I can't understand what yer tryin' to do, Al," muttered Hagrid, pouring himself a bucket sized mug of tea.

"Yes," replied Al, "but you can't deny that it's working quite well." He pointed out the window by the door, through which you could plainly see Rose helping Scorpius as they limped up the stairs to the castle. Hagrid looked too, and just shrugged.

"Yer a good kid, Al. But yer completely mental."

"I know," said Al, still watching his friends with a slightly mad expression on his face.

*Slytherin Tower*

The two waited wordlessly, Scorpius leaning on the wall to remain standing. They had been stationed there for some time now, waiting for a student to emerge. Then someone did. The door swung open slowly to reveal a small, timid looking boy, a first year like them.

"Hello," said Rose in a sweet convincing voice. He looked up, one eyebrow raised. "We were just wondering if you would be so kind as to do me and my friend a small favor."

He gave her a quizzical look, before shaking his head firmly, and continuing down the corridor. Suddenly a hand grasped his shoulder, and a wand appeared at his throat.

"Please," said Scorpius through gritted teeth, forcing his voice to stay calm. The boy looked positively petrified, before he nodded in consent.

"Great! You know Al, my cousin?" he nodded once more. "All we need you to do is to sprinkle this in his bed." She handed him a small bag of some unknown powder. He nodded for a last time, and rushed back through the door from which he had just come.

*Next morning*

Scorpius awoke with a loud yawn. He looked around for a moment, confused, before remembering what had happened yesterday. He was in the hospital wing. He propped himself up in bed, reaching for the pain relieving potion on the table. He drank it, feeling much better. He replaced it and I doing so caught sight of Rose, asleep in an armchair by his bed. He smiled, surprised to see her, but pleased all the same.

She stirred at the noise he was making, and opened her eyes sleepily. She blushed, realizing that she had stayed there all night and it might seem as if she actually cared about his minor wounds. "U-um…g-good morning!" she said, realizing that he was staring at her.

"You know, you really are a hypocrite sometimes," he said, slightly mockingly. She glared at him, recovering from her blush.

"I was just going to stay for a while, to make sure you were fine…and I suppose I just fell asleep…" she muttered defensively.

"It's fine. I appreciate it," he replied, smiling kindly. She smiled back slightly, happy that he seemed to be fine.

"Well now I might get to see if our little trick we played worked! He should come in soon."

"I hope not. What do you think he'll say when he sees that you stayed here all night?" he said, rolling his eyes.

"Knowing Al, either something sick and perverted, or something about me liking you, or something about us being secret bffs…" she said, seeing his point.

As if on cue, Albus burst through the door loudly, covered in hives from head to toe. He plopped down onto an empty bed, looked up, not at all surprised to see the two, and said "you did this to me. So…Un…Cool…" At this his words were stopped by Madame Pomfrey who had suddenly rushed to his bedside, fussing over him. He was certainly not happy about his current situation, he was glad for an excuse to come here and see that his plan had worked.

"Oh no!!!" shouted Rose suddenly, making the others jump. "Classes! WE'RE LATE!" she pointed to the clock franticly, as if she hadn't already made her point clear.

"Relax, Wealey," said Scorpius, reaching out a hand to calm her. "It's Saturday. Weekend. No class." At this, she landed directly back in her chair with a little "flop!"

"That's good," she said with a little sigh. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Aaaawwww… were you worried about me, Rosie?" he asked in a mock baby voice. She blushed bright pink, and poked him sharply in the arm he had a bandage on.

"Ow!" he yelped. "You said no more fighting!" he whined, rubbing his arm with a hurt expression. She giggled a bit, at the silly face he made. Scorpius laughed a bit too. Al just grinned, watching them silently from across the room.

It only took another hour for the two to heal quickly. The three left together at about 9:30. They headed to the field to practice quidditch for a bit. Quidditch was the only thing that made Scorpius and Rose really feel comfortable together. It also helped to have Al around.

They played for a few hours before heading to lunch, their stomachs reminding them painfully that none of them had eaten breakfast. In the great hall, Al ran off to join the Slytherin table, while Scorpius and Rose sat at their own table.

"Why are we sitting next to Scorpius?" whispered Andy, taking the seat to the right of Rose. Rose looked to her left, and sure enough, there was Scorpius, pouring soup into a bowl.

"I don't know," replied Rose quietly. "I guess since we were hanging out we just walked in here and sat together."

"You two were hanging out?"

"Practicing quidditch!" said Rose defensively.

"I still don't get it…"

"Well I had been visiting him and Al in the hospital…"

"Awww…were you worried about him?" said Andy in the same mocking voice Scorpius had used.

"That's what I said," came a new voice from the other side of Rose. "Oh, and Corner, you should work on you whispering skills. I could hear you from over here. Weasley was pretty quiet. Follow her example." Andy blushed and excused herself, pocketing an apple as she left.

"Thanks…by the way," muttered Scorpius as soon as Andy left. "For staying, and for saving me. Bloody tree took my wand."

"Oh…um, no problem. You know it was set up. I couldn't not save you…but I really was a bit worried… They should've killed that tree years ago." She said the last part angrily, knowing how much harm it had caused, particularly to relatives. Lucy had even almost gotten an eye out in her first year. It was lucky Madame Pomfrey had been able to help, but she did end up needing glasses.

She spent the rest of lunch telling him all about what her parents told her about that tree. That there was a passage to hogsmead in it. That it had been home of a werewolf. That an escaped convict had held her parents hostage there. They had fun. They actually seemed to be enjoying each others company. All was going according to Al's plan.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter eight

It was the night after Halloween, and everyone had been in a good mood that day. It was a nice fall day, it was a weekend, they had just had one of the best meals of their lives, and everyone was cheerful. Until, that is, at around 7, Scorpius remembered that they had a huge potions test that Monday, for which you needed to work as a group. He had gone up to Rose and reminded her of this, before heading off to the library. Rose went to get Albus, before following Scorpius. This was about an hour ago, and about half an hour in, Albus decided he felt confident for the test and had better places to be. He packed up and left, leaving Rose and Scorpius alone to study.

"I don't _know_ what the main ingredient in a swelling solution is! That's supposed to be second year stuff!" groaned Scorpius agitatedly, leaning back in his chair. "So unfair…"

"If Ms. Muffy didn't hate us so much, we'd getting O's in potions! There's no way we can do badly on this test!" said Rose. "And since when have _you _had trouble with second year potions?" she looked at him skeptically.

"Since…I got this _teeerrrrrible _headache," he replied, looking extremely frustrated.

"Fine. Take a brake," said Rose with a sigh. "I'll keep studying. As long as _somebody_ knows this stuff, we should be fine."

"Thanks," he said, surprised but grateful. He pushed his books away and laid his head on the desk to rest for a while, the cool wood soothing his headache a bit. They stayed that way for a few minutes, when Rose got confused.

"D we need to know the uses of lacewing fly?" she asked. When he did not answer she looked up, only to find that he was sleeping peacefully. She decided not to wake him. Instead she kept on studying. The two continued what they were doing, sleeping and studying, until about ten thirty when Ms. Pince (a/n Madam Pince's daughter who took her mothers name…she secretly had a daughter…idk…I was too lazy to come up with a new name and madam pince is probably retired and/or dead by now.) came in.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!?" she said, making Scorpius stir in his sleep. Rose hushed her quietly, looking startled herself. "Off to bed. Now!" she yelled, walking off, muttering about how it was ridiculous for 11 year olds to be up this late studying.

Rose, knowing that Scorpius was grumpy when he woke up (He had often been very mean to her when they had early quidditch practice.) decided not to wake him. She also knew both of them needed sleep, since tomorrow there was a game against Beaubaxtons. Instead of bothering Scorpius, she merely muttered "_Mobilicorpus"_ and levitated him down the corridor, both of their books slung over her arm.

"Tsk tsk tsk," came a voice from a little bit behind her. "It would seem you have already killed him…" continued Coach Krum, coming into view next to her. "You couldn't have waited till after tomorrow's game?" She looked up, smiling at him.

"He fell asleep while we were studying for a test together."

"Are you two friends now, then?" he asked, his thickly accented voice sounding slightly surprised.

"I wouldn't exactly say that…" she said, pondering the question. "I suppose we just get along better now. And we had to study together because we're lab partners…"

"I bet that's been fun," he said sarcastically.

"We destroyed the class room on our first day."

They walked for a while longer, mostly discussing quidditch tactics, before reaching Ravenclaw tower.

"Get some sleep now, Rosie," he said, ruffling her hair.

"I will coach," she replied, climbing through the door to her common room. She was too lazy to go into the boy's dorm to put Scorpius in bed, so she merely set him down on a comfy couch, and put a blanket over him, before heading up to bed herself.

Scorpius had been very confused that morning when he woke up on the couch, before he remembered falling asleep while they were studying. He apologized to Rose and thanked her for moving him. Then they headed off to the quidditch field together. They won the game quickly. Beaubaxtons has never exactly been a jock school. After the game, they all flew down to congratulate each other, and Louis went over to say hi to a few Beaubaxtons cousins of his.

Later that night they had a party. It wasn't as big a party as usual, but that's because it wasn't really as big a game as usual. It was relatively quiet because none of the Weasleys or Potters from the other houses had come. Louis was over in an arm chair with girls flirting shamelessly with him, as usual (he's kinda popular since he's among the more beautiful human beings ever to walk the earth), while some of the other players were drinking butterbeers, making toasts and such (All of them r at least 13 so its ok. They aren't as irresponsible as Al).

Scorpius and Rose, meanwhile, were sharing a couch, discussing the game.

"I _understand_ what you were _trying_to do, there, but we really could've done much better if you had passed to me and moved up," said Rose in a slightly exasperated manner.

"I suppose," replied Scorpius, pondering it for a moment. "You also should watch out for things like the keeper rules and such. The quaffle wasn't quite in the scoring zone, and it's just embarrassing to get fouled for something like that."

The two continued talking, pointing out the others mistakes, complementing the other on a particularly nice shot, completely unaware of the startelingly green eyes watching them from an armchair on the opposite side of the room. Al had recently mastered the skill of gaining access to the common room without actually knowing the answer to the doors questions, and was abusing this horribly. He had inherited his father's invisibility cloak and had used it to spy on numerous occasions, but in the chaos created by the party; he just needed to be quiet.

"And did you see the look on her face," said Scorpius enthusiastically, "when you hit her with that bludger!? It was like she'd never played quidditch! Nice shot by the way, Rose." They laughed, remembering the dainty little blonde Beaubaxtons girl who they had hit.

"And then there was that black haired girl! The one you knocked off her broom…did you just call me Rose?" she said, suddenly looking at him with a very confused face.

"Yeah…" he said, looking a bit puzzled himself. "I think I did. Is that ok?"

"Huh?" asked rose, startled.

"Can I call you Rose?" he said simply. "I don't like calling you weasley. I don't call Al "Potter," and my dad always says those names like they're bad things…" He trailed off, blushing slightly.

"I'm glad your father thinks so highly of us," said Rose flatly.

"And you're surprised by this? Its my father. He's a total moron."

"Fine. You can call me Rose but only if I can call you Scorpy!" she said, laughing. He poked her painfully, telling her to shut up. "Fine! _Fine!_" she said as he continued attacking her (a lot less violently then he would've a few months ago). "How bout _Scorpius _then?"

"Fine, _Rose_," he said, emphasizing the use of her first name happily. 'Maybe she doesn't hate me,' he thought hopefully. For some time now he had thought of Rose as a friend, almost forgetting that she still showed very few signs of not hating him.

'It's so strange that he would call me by my first name,' thought Rose. She was very happy, since this seemed to be a sign that he liked her. She had slowly been starting to think of him as a friend, but until about a week ago had been in denial, wanting with all her might to hate him, but failing abysmally.

Al smiled, replacing his extendable ears into his bag, and heading off. His "Operation Make My Cousin and Best Friend Like Each Other," seemed to be taking care of itself. His work here was done.

*Transfiguration class, next Friday*

Scorpius sat on the far left of the class, watching Professor McGonigal demonstrate a particularly easy spell that he had mastered long ago. He looked over to see Rose, who wasn't taking notes as diligently as usual, but instead dozing off on her notebook. He chuckled and wrote a note on the piece of paper he had had out to take notes on. He then folded it neatly into an origami crane, and blew it away across the room, a trick his father had taught him when he was much younger.

No sooner than he had done so, McGonigal swooped over to Rose's table, snatching the paper. She unfolded it, glaring down over the tops of her spectacles. She looked at it for a moment before turning on Scorpius.

"What, may I ask, is this," she said, waving the sheet of notes with Roses name on it at him.

"I accidentally grabbed Rose's homework. I thought I'd return it to her."

She pursed her lips, giving him an appraising look, before saying, "Next time you wish to return something to Ms. Weasley, you may do so _after class_." And with that, she strode off to her desk, resuming her lecture.

Curious, Rose looked down at the paper, knowing full well that Scorpius had not accidentally grabbed her homework. She looked at it for a moment, before the words changed. 'Wanna ditch potions potions with me? Get in some extra quidditch practice for the game next week? I can't stand the idea of sitting here doing nothing and then being tortured by Muffin.' She looked at it hesitantly for a moment, thinking of how she knew that Al and Scorpius had skipped class their fair share of times, while she had been the teachers pet, never even arriving late. She had a little battle with herself before making her decision. Using a slightly more discreet method than Scorpius, she levitated his quill, waving her wand to write 'sure. Is Al coming with?' on a scrap piece of paper on his desk. He read it over, smiled and used the same trick she had demonstrated to reply 'No. he likes potions, and we can't all be absent, can we?' she looked at him, nodded, and went back to her dutiful note taking.

After class, the two walked casually down the path towards the quidditch field, broomsticks in hand. They were talking and laughing, not bothering to be discreet, since they were a safe distance from the castle. They played for a half hour or so, before deciding to take a break.

"So how'd you know about the womping willow?" asked Scorpius interestedly.

"I've heard a lot about it actually. You can imagine that my family would have a lot of stories. I can tell you aaaallllllll about it. It was planted to keep my cousin Teddy's werewolf dad in check, there's a tunnel under it, you see, and my parents went down there once, chasing a criminal, but he wasn't a criminal, he was Uncle Harry's godfather, and he had kidnapped dad, but he was looking for a rat…I forget why, but it leads to the Shrieking Shack! The scary house in hogsmead! They used to think it was haunted! What rubbish. Anyway, you know my cousin, Lucy? You must, she's on the Gryffindor team, duh! And that tree almost took out her eyes! Thank goodness she made it to st. mungos in time! She wears glasses now, but it was scary…" she stopped for breath, "am I babbling?" She looked questioningly at him. He was staring at her, a funny expression on his face.

"You know, you really aren't half as bad as I thought you were, Rose," he said, snapping out of his daze.

"Nor are you," she replied, giving him a small smile.

They continued to talk for a while, getting more and more comfortable around each other as they chatted. They talked about random things, like the game against Durmstrang in two weeks, and weather it would be them or Gryffindor facing them, and how very evil Ms. Muffy was. They simply sat in the stadium, talking happily until…

"I thought I'd find you two lovebirds here!" came a loud, triumphant yell, as Al popped up behind them, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders. They glared at him for a moment, before they both drew their wands and hexed him, directly in the face. He fell over, sneezing small bats, and upon trying to rise, he stumbled and fell over again. Yup. Jelly legs and bat bogey.

Instead of looking mad, or in pain, he merely pouted and whined "no faaaaair! Mom said she would teach meeeee to use that heeeeexxxxxx!!!!!" the two shook their heads exasperatedly, wondering how it was possible for any self-respecting 11-year-old could act that much like a toddler and get away with it.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I know everyone says they act far too old to be 11…but just FYI, and I don't mean to be mean, but I just don't care. They are just…special?**

Chapter 9

It was half way through the game. Rose passed to Scorpius, dodging the other bludger skillfully as one of the Durmsrang beaters fired it at her face. Durmstrang was ahead by three points when Hannah assisted Louis in a perfect goal, and almost immediately after, scored one herself, bringing the score up to 70-80. They were making a terrific comeback from their rather poor show in the beginning of the game. Scorpius had just knocked one of the chasers on the other team to the ground, and Rose was glancing around for the other bludger when suddenly, it found her first. She felt a sharp pain in the back of her head right before blacking out, hearing nothing but the rush of wind as she fell into some unknown person's arms.

"Argh!" was the sound she awoke to, accompanied with the sound of a small explosion. Rose straightened up, noting how dark it was.

"Awake I see," commented Scorpius, seeing her sit up a little in bed out of the corner of his eye as he tried again to complete the card castle he was making. He swore quietly when another of the exploding cards burnt his left ring finger slightly, making a loud "CRACK!"

"How long have you been trying that?" asked Rose, seeing how singed all of his fingers looked.

"Dunno," he said, lazily. "Few hours… since I got bored of rating how cool the people on the chocolate frog cards." He indicated four large piles of cards, some of which had Rose's parents on them. "Madame Pomfrey said if she was going to let me stay this late I had to at least try not to make her sick by eating all those frogs." He paused for a moment before correcting himself. "I suppose I shouldn't say late…I stayed early."

Rose looked curiously at her wristwatch, shocked to see what he had meant. It was 2:34 AM.

"Why are you up this late!?!?" she looked at him surprised.

"Early," he corrected.

"What about classes? You'll be so tired!" She continued to look worried and surprised before her look turned to utter horror. "I will be able to go to classes, right!!!???"

"Chill, Rose," said Scorpius with a slight chuckle. "You have the morning off. You got quite the nasty bump there. Madame Pomfrey said you will probably have excruciatingly painful headaches on and off for the next day or two, so she decided to give you a little break." He smiled as she calmed down slightly, soothed by the knowledge that she could attend afternoon lasses, including a charms test.

"Why are you here, anyway?" she asked, still slightly baffeled.

"I…" he blushed slightly. "I just couldn't stop the bludger. I felt bad. She said you wouldn't be out all night so I decided to wait around to make sure you were fine. I have classes so I couldn't wait til morning."

"Thanks," said Rose, smiling shyly at him. "That's sweet…" she blushed. "I m-mean. Yeah. Thanks a lot-t…" she trailed off slightly, to Scorpius's amusement. "And it wasn't your fault… WAIT WHAT HAPPENED!?!?"

It took him a moment to get what she was saying before he got it and grinned broadly. "After I caught you and made sure you were fine I joined the game and we were already ahead! We destroyed them!"

The two chatted happily about the game for a while before Rose announced that she was tired and Madame Pomfrey shooed Scorpius away saying how he had seen her and she was obviously not dead and how he should be in bed.

*Next day*

Scorpius smiled, leaning against the arch, watching Rose sleep with a slight scowl on her face.

"Bad dreams, Rose?" he asked, approaching her bedside and waking her up.

"hmmm...?" she replied, not opening her eyes. He chuckled, and poked her in the arm to make her get up.

"I said, bad dreams?"

"No," she said, in a voice that suggested it was taking far to much effort to speak. "Just…really…bad…headache…" she muttered, opening her eyes briefly, before turning away from the bright afternoon sun, shining in through the window.

"Well, its only to be expected," he said, drawing the curtains and handing her some pain relieving potion. "Its hard to painlessly heal a cracked skull." She chocked slightly on her medicine. "Yup, cracked skull." She looked slightly shocked, but managed to swallow.

"Anyway, I came to make sure you made it to lunch. You were out from before lunch to after dinner last night. I guess you'd be hungry and I doubt Mcgonigal will let you off easy because you slept through lunch."

It hadn't really occurred to her, but hearing this she realized how hungry she was. As if on cue, her stomach let out a loud rumble. She blushed slightly and Scorpius giggled.

Rose sat up more, making an effort to rise, before noticing that she was still in her nightgown Madame Pomfrey had given her, and her only other clothes that she had were quidditch robes.

"Oh, um, I brought you some extra robes…they're mine, though, because none of the girls would bring me some of yours because they thought I would steal them and so I just had to bring you mine and so they'll be a bit big…" he said, handing her some robes that were a good few inches too long for her.

She smiled gratefully, accepting the robes. "Thanks," she said. "I'll just change now." She stood, shooing him away. He backed off as she drew the curtain around her bed.

A few minutes later the two headed off to lunch, discussing the classes Rose had missed, Scorpius telling her the homework she had to do.

"I can't do this! I don't know anything about that potion!"

"That's because we learned it today," said Scorpius, passing her the small bottle of medicine he had brought as she brought a hand to her head, groaning slightly in pain. "Don't worry. I'll help you out later. We can do the homework together." She smiled, drinking a sip to sooth her headache.

They ate lunch together, Scorpius having a bowl of soup while Rose piled her plate high with everything available, not having eaten for over a day.

They went to class 5 minutes late, since Rose had insisted on finishing her baked potato. They did very well on their test, and Rose got another headache during transfiguration. Rose sat and watched as they all flew around during practice, but half way through Scorpius landed next to her and they hit the bludger back and forth for the rest of the time. They didn't want Rose to faint or anything so she couldn't fly for the next day or two of practice, but she was fine because she could play a bit on the ground.

Later that night they were up doing homework.

"I can't do this!" said Rose, collapsing onto Scorpius's shoulder as she spoke.

"Just focus, Rose," he said, lifting her head and directing it towards the textbook he had open on thee table. "Its really simple." Usually Rose would be telling him this, but today she had the slight disadvantage of feeling like her head was exploding.

He continued to explain the unique effects the potion they had brewed earlier that day had on people that differed from others, and by the time they were done it was very late.

"I'm tiiiirreedd!" yawned Rose, stretching as she sat up straight and put away her parchment. "Are you going to bed?"

"I think I'm gonna stay up a little longer," replied Scorpius, looking in his bag for something. "I'm in the middle of a book I want to finish." He produced a large black book from his bag and settled down on the couch.

"For school?" Rose guessed, "Or just terrible muggle fantasy." She looked at the cover of "Breaking Dawn" with a skeptical look in her eyes. "You read that?"

"Maybe…"

"I hate it. Edward is creepy and abusive."

"Yeah, he really is… wait, you've read it too?"

"Kinda… I think the chapter where she has the demon child scarred me for life."

"Wow! Way to spoil it for me!"

"Do you honestly care?"

"Not really."

She smiled and curled up on the couch next to him. He opened the book and began to read, Rose resting her head on his shoulder, reading along.

Ten minutes or so later Scorpius reached the part Rose had described. "Ha! I see what you mean! I think I just lost even more respect for this author!" he laughed, looking over at her. To his surprise she had already fallen asleep. He smiled over at her, and summoned the blanket from the other armchair to cover her. He kept reading to himself until he got tired, and then he fell asleep, book on the floor by the couch, and Rose using his arm as a pillow.

At midnight, a small creak was heard in the common room. A little head with large ears popped out around the door. Winky looked around cautiously, before spotting the two on the couch. She smiled happily and began to clean the area around them, whistling quietly as she went.

*breakfast*

"Soooo!" said Al, throwing his harms around Scorpius in an annoying hug, completely ditching his girlfriend. "I notice Rose has been avoiding you as though you have some sort of contagious disease… and I would love it ever so much if you would tell me why, exactly?" He smiled his bug, innocent smile, just loving how things were going.

"She hasn't been avoiding me!" snapped Scorpius angrily. "She just hasn't happened to have been sitting near me…" he trailed off as Rose walked by, quickening her steps as she passed him, turning her face to hide the obvious blush.

"Not avoiding you, eh?" said Al, with a smug smirk.

"I don't know what's up…" muttered Scorpius, his eyes following Rose across the hall.

"I've got an idea!" said Al, suddenly. "OI! ROSEY-KINS! WHY HAVE YOU BEEN IGNORING YOUR FAVORITE COUSINS DEAR BEST MATE!" everyone laughed, and Scorpius and Rose both blushed bright red.

Rose, deciding she couldn't ignore him anymore, just calmly walked up to him and muttered to him, still blushing.

"Louis was the one who woke us up this morning. He's awful! Worse than Al! and he's been teasing me all day! He also told someone that we were secretly in love… and, well… rumors spread fast here, you know…" he looked confused for a sec, before she gestured to the people around her who, sure enough, were all muttering and pointing.

"The hero and the deatheater?"

"She's not even pretty!"

"A Weasley and a Malfoy? Yeah right!"

Then he got the picture. Everyone was talking about them, but unlike most gossip, this would last them a while. Their families were sworn enemies and everyone knew it.

"Sooooo! You two are finally admitting your feelings to the world?" said Al in an excited voice. "Ah, young love!" He switched to his dreamy voice.

"You're two months younger than me," said Rose coldly.

"Ignore him, Rose," said Scorpius, ceasing to respond to Al's presence. "Anyway, its fine if you want to keep ignoring me. I understand."

She looked at him for a moment, before grabbing by the hand and leading him to the table to have breakfast together, leaving a slightly confuse Al in their wake. She sat him down next to her and continued talking as if everything were normal, ignoring all the muttering and staring. She was doing this as if to say "So there! He's my friend and I honestly don't care what any of you think!" It was then that Scorpius realized something. They were all right. He loved Rose… well maybe not loved, but one thing was sure: he had never felt that way before (a/n cheesy? Yes. Do I care? Of coarse not!)

It was five minutes into breakfast when Noctua landed in front of Scorpius.

"A letter?" asked Scorpius to no one in particular.

"Why not?" asked Rose.

"Well I don't really have any friends who would write, and Father said not to expect any mail from him… he said he would deal with me over break… next week." He retrieved the letter carefully and started to open it. "It must be important if I couldn't wait 6 days…" his voice trailed off as he read the letter. Rose could see his eyes reading it over 3 times, filling with panic with each reading. Without a word he stormed from the hall. Not many people seemed to notice him leave, but Rose watched and could have sworn she saw a tear on his cheek as he left.

She glanced around, wondering what to do. Feeling slightly guilty, she reached for the letter that was still right where he had left it.

_Scorpius,_

_Astoria has had another accident. There was nothing the healers could do. The exact cause of her death is unknown. The funeral shall be held during your winter break so as not to pull you from your studies. I will pick you up at the station and we will get you fitting robes for the occasion on our way home. When you arrive we will also discuss the matter of her will. I will see you in one week. Until then, make me proud._

Rose was horrified. Everything about the letter, even down to the words "make me proud" seemed bitter and unwelcoming. _Astoria,_ thought Rose. _Scorpius's mom… I can't believe it. _ By the time she had finished that thought she was already storming out after Scorpius, for once, not caring about the classes that started in 3 minutes. She looked everywhere, before noticing how unnaturally still the Womping Willow seemed. She approached it cautiously, and then decided it was safe. Apart from the Weasley/Potter/Lupin group, Scorpius was the only person Rose could think of that would use this passage. Without a second thought, she dived in.

It was a long passage, but she knew he was there and she had to find him.

She did find him.

He was huddled up on a bed on the second floor, his sobs audible from the moment you exit the tunnel. Rose entered the room, and sat on the bed beside him, but had no idea what to say.

"Sh-she was the only o-one who really cared about m-me!" he yelled suddenly. "It's not FAIR!" He kicked the bedside table ferociously as he said the last word.

Rose looked at him sadly, but still being at a loss for words, merely hugged him. He didn't hug back at first, unsure of what to do, but in a moment he completely lost control. He sobbed into her arms for what seemed like days, and must have rally been hours. He told her all about how amazing his mother had been. How his father didn't care if he lived or died. How she had been the only thing that seemed to keep his father from snapping and how scared he was. He was so scared and he told her all about it. He completely opened up to her and told her everything.

When he was out of breath, she still could do nothing but hold him. He went completely limp in her arms, exhausted from his own grief. He just sat there and eventually fell asleep. Rose didn't fall asleep, though. She watched him, never moving her eyes away. She was so worried for him, and she knew what she should do. She wanted more than anything for him to spend vacation with her family. He couldn't go home, even if it meant missing his mother's funeral. The real problem was her dad, who would never, under any circumstances let him under his roof.

It was almost lunch when she woke him.

"Hey," she said in a quiet voice, his bloodshot eyes looking into her also slightly puffy ones. "It's almost lunch. Do you want to head back?" she pushed back a loose strand of his hair, still holding him tight.

"I," he started, voice cracking. "I don't know."

She looked him over and said, "food. You need food. We can ditch class again, but you really need some food."

He nodded, and let her lead him downstairs and into the tunnel.

As Rose led the shaking boy through the darkness, she realized something herself. She had really grown to love this boy… or at least a crush. She knew it wasn't the time, but knowing it made her feel happy, though she would never tell anyone.

They reached the grounds and headed to Hagrid's hut. Rose knew that Hagrid would go easy on them and let them skip class, due to the circumstances. She also knew that in the last few years he had set up a system with the house elves so he could get the same food in his hut as in the hall, saving himself and all his company from the horror of his abysmal cooking.

"Hello, Rosey!" said Hagrid, his face lighting up the second he saw his visitor at the door. His face darkened, however, when he saw Scorpius. "What's happened?" he asked, ushering them in. Now, in this proper light, Rose could see why he looked so worried. Scorpius looked very weak, and even paler that usual. His eyes really were bloodshot, and his face was tearstained, his hair going everywhere. He was a complete mess.

As Scorpius ate and warmed up by the fire, Rose sat by the window, explaining everything to Hagrid. Like Rose, he didn't quite know what to say, so the two merely looked out as the first snow of winter fell quietly around the hut.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"NO!"

Scorpius flopped down on the couch, eyes brimming with tears as they so often had for the last two days. He punched a deep blue pillow that he had been leaning on, startling Rose slightly. He calmed down a bit and straightened up.

"Sorry, Rose," he said, not looking her in they eye. "I just can't-"

"No, Scorp. You _can't _go back to _your _house! Your dad will _beat you! _Do you think I would let you go back there?"

"He's my father, Rose. I can't just not go home! And I need to be there for… for the…" His voice cracked as he tried to day the word "funeral."

Rose reached out, as if to hug him, but thought better of it. "I could get Al to help persuade you," was all she said, in an off hand voice.

Scorpius grimaced, picturing himself waking up the first day of break, stuffed into a small suitcase, already on the way to Rose's house. He looked up at her, straight into her eyes, and said "what about _your _dad?" She closed her eyes, wondering how he had said the one thing that she herself had just been panicking about.

"Um… Uncle Harry can talk to him? Or Mum… he can't say no to Mum…" she trailed off, knowing that she would need the combined efforts of all her aunts, uncles, and cousins that would agree to help, to convince her dad to even consider letting Scorpius stay with them. Another problem was that they had four days left before vacation. "I'll figure it out, but one way or another, you know I'll make you come… I-I'm sorry about missing the funeral, but I can't let you go home. You probably wouldn't come back alive."

He looked as though he was about to argue, when a new voice came from behind them.

"She's right, you know, Malfoy." Louis came down from where he had been listening silently on the stairs. "I was sorry to hear about your mom, by the way." He looked at Scorpius, who nodded in gratitude. Then he directed his attention to Rose. "His father _beats _him? Haven't you told anyone?" She looked at her cousin guiltily, and then shook her head, staring at her feet. "You _should _tell McGonagall, but that's up to you. I really don't want to get involved with the crazy soap opera lives of first years. But I will, however, agree that he should stay with us. I'll send a letter to Uncle Ron, and I bet you and Al will too. I bet Al would be more than happy. Anyway, Rosie, I am absolutely positive your mom will be able to convince your dad. You know her. We even hint that something bad is going on at the Malfoy Manor and she's instantly on our side. We can just… send a letter to Mr. Malfoy once… Little Malfoy here's safely at your house!" He had good points. Very smart. A true Ravenclaw.

"Why did Christmas have to be at my house this year! Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry would have let him stay…" Rose whined.

Scorpius looked between the two, wondering why everyone had stopped asking his opinion about his holiday. He did have to hand it to them, however; He couldn't imagine a place he would rather spend Christmas than with the Weasleys and Potters. Two of them had become his unlikely best friends, and he knew nobody else but Rose's dad actually had a problem with him. He had started to quite like the whole group.

He looked up, noticing the matter seemed to have been resolved and the two cousins were now looking at him expectantly.

"Well?" they asked in unison.

"Um… I'm in."

*Two days later*

Everyone was at the Ravenclaw table, waiting anxiously for the owls. Scorpius was so happy to see them all. He had never even exchanged a word with Dominique, yet there she was, standing right behind him, a worried, sympathetic expression on her gorgeous face.

Suddenly the large form of Athena appeared as a silhouette against the cold morning clouds. She landed with a slight thump and shook off the snow clinging to her smooth feathers. Everyone looked at Scorpius who, getting the message, untied the letter from her leg, frightened about what it might hold. Everyone leaned in to see the shortest letter ever. It was one word that had clearly been forced.

Yes.

They all leaned in and hugged him. He was astounded. Scorpius was amazed. The family that he had sworn to hat had accepted him, literally, with open arms. He had barely met some of them and they were still happy. They seemed glad to have him over, and happy to help him escape his father. He had never felt this accepted except when he was with his mother.

**(A/N we interrupt this heart-warming chapter of Rosius Randomness to inform you that if you cant wait for this to be finished and are waiting in suspence for the ending… TO BAD! I have honestly no idea where I am going with this and haven't since day one! When will that mildly depressing, mildly sweet complete lack of plot end, one might ask? BRRUUUUUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! NOBODY KNOWWWWWSSSSSS!!!!!!!! ((evil laughter and lightning flashes! Dramatic music plays from nowhere and just when all hope seems lost! The random authors note ends… ******** )))**

"So he thinks the train's been delayed?" Rose asked for the hundredth time.

"Yes, Rose. For the hundredth time: my father will not be there when we get there. He thinks the train leaves at noon. Calm yourself."

He had been doing a lot better over the past few days. Scorpius had even begun to be friends with some more of the Weasleys and Potters. They acknowledged each other's presence from time to time, anyway. Scorpius was happy that, for once, he could spend the holidays with a happy, close-knit family.

Al, Rose and Scorpius rode together on the bus. Al had loosened up on the whole "Operation: Get My Cousin To Like My Best Friend" thing lately. As Rose and Scorpius had pretty much, though they never mentioned it, become best friends, Al decided that the process of them falling madly in love with each other, getting married and living happily ever after was pretty much inevitable at this point. He could tell that they liked each other, as could anyone who bothered to look closely. But he also knew that they were the most awkward, dense, immature people he had ever met. His opinion was that they would be lucky if they admitted their feelings to each other before they graduated. He made a mental note to make a bet on that with James. He had no doubt that people like them, beautiful, smart, kind and perfect, would date in their time at school, but he honestly could not picture either of them having the courage to be the one actually asking the other out. There's the predicament.

When they arrived at the station, Rose and Al stood up immediately, grabbing their luggage and searching for their parents on the platform. Scorpius, however, remained seated. Noticing this, Rose put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him.

"You'll be fine. It can't be that bad… I mean, he's letting you stay, so theres no way he can still be mad at you for… you know… your dad, right?" She tried to give him a cheery smile, but failed slightly. He smiled back, halfheartedly, and rose from his seat.

They emerged as one mass. All the Potters and Weasleys were in a group, heading towards the smaller group of parents. Most of them were hugging and such, but before Ron greeted anyone, he went to Scorpius.

Scorpius had read that thing about "if looks could kill, he'd be dead," but he had never taken it seriously. Never, that is, until now. Ron was staring him down as though he was about to pounce, but then he extended his arm. They shook hands, and the atmosphere changed completely. By no means had it been what anyone would call friendly, but most of them were just happy that they had avoided a full on shouting match in the midst of all their classmates and their families. That had literally been the worst-case scenario they had expected, as Ron's temper had seemed to get worse with age.

The car ride was very packed. There were only two cars, and though Teddy, Ginny and the grandparents had stayed home, and the inside of the cars were magically enlarged, it was a tight fit. One held Rose, Scorpius, Al, Hugo, Lily, James, Fred, Roxanne, Harry, Ron and Hemione, while the other held Louis, Dominique, Victoire, Lucy, Molly, Bill, Charlie, Fluer, George, Angelina, Percy and Audrey.

They went through London, the senery changing unnaturally fast from city, to farmland. The Weasleys lived in a rural area, not far from the Lovegoods, Who would be joining them, and from the Burrow, where Molly Sr. and Arthur still lived, alone in such a big house. They eventually pulled into a long driveway, slowing to a stop. When they did, nobody wasted time getting out. The car Scorpius and Rose had been in was unloaded so quick, no one knew what had happened, due to the fact that smoke was emitting from the open windows. The twins had thought it was a good time to test their experimental firecrackers (ones that crack extra loudly, explode into rainbow smoke, and make everything it touches glitter for the rest of the day). Once they were safely out of the car, it was much easier to enjoy the glitter.

"Rose," called Scorpius as he unloaded his bag from the trunk. "When did you become a vampire?" he gestured at her skin, and looking, she saw how it was sparkling in sunlight. She laughed.

"I could say the same to you, _Edward!"_ she said, still laughing.

"You did not just compare me to Edward!"

"Yes! It is you! The gorgeous, pale, shinny, creepy, abusive, stalker vampire: Edward!" she mock-fainted when she looked at him, emphasizing the word gorgeous.

"Gorgeous, am I?" said Scorpius, looking approvingly at his own reflection on the side of the car.

"Shut up!" she said, punching him lightly on the arm.

"You're the one who said it!"

"DON'T WORRY, SCORPY, MY LOVE!" cam a familiar, over-exagerated voice from above them. "I THINK YOU'RE GORGEOUS NO MATTER WHAT THAT MEAN ROSIE-KINZ SAYS!" The pair located him leaning out of a second story window, arms open wide as though he were trying to hug Scorpius, and Rose promptly hit him in the face with a rock.

"ROOOOOSIE! YOU'RE A BEATER! NO FAIR! YOU HAVE BIG MAN-MUSCLES IN YOU ARMS!" He faked crying and then, after the second rock, went inside. It was around then that Rose and Scorpius realized that everyone had ditched them and were claiming rooms.

Rose decided to give Scorpius a tour as soon as they had the rooms. Scorpius with Al and James and Rose across the hall. They wandered the corridors, exploring all the areas of the house. Rose introduced Scorpius to the parents, Grandparents, Teddy, Hugo, and Lily, the only ones he didn't know.

As they wandered the house, Scorpius found he liked it quite a lot. It was more welcoming than the Malfoy Mannor. It wasn't small, but it wasn't intimidating, the whole mood was just a lot more pleasant. Seeing Rose's room, and the room Al and James shared when they visited, he saw how much stuff they had. There were posters on the walls and fun curtains and the rooms really looked lived in. Some people might call Scorpius spoiled, but the thing was, he wasn't allowed anything. His parents decided what was in his room, and made sure it was perfect at all times. Being here, he felt a bit of jealousy, but it also made him happy. He wasn't the bitter type. For the first time in days he really felt happy. He knew all at once that he had made the right choice in coming here, and that he probably couldn't have beared going to his mothers funeral anyway.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

_mmmm…. Raining cannnnddddyyyyyyy…….. chocolate. Ice cream… I like this rain…. Mmm… hard candy…oowww…..hard candy! OW! STOP RAINING ON MY FACE! IT HURTS! It hurts it…_

"…hurts…. Bad jawbreakers…" Scorpius opened his eyes to see Rose standing above him, poking his cheek to wake him up.

"Wake up, Scorp! Come on! Its Christmas! Everyone else woke up an hour ago! Well… except for you and Al." She gestured at the snoring lump of blankets on the floor by Al's bed.

Scorpius got up slowly and uncovered Al's face.

"I already got him a present… but maybe as something else we could get Molly to help get rid of these bruises…" he laughed a bit. The two identical, purple blotches on his face form Rose's rock throwing hadn't quite faded yet, and in all honestly, he looked ridiculous. He looked at Rose for a moment, and the both shook their heads in unison. It would spoil Christmas for everyone if the bruises vanished now.

Once Al was awake, the three of them headed downstairs to the tree.

"There they are! You two slept in! we've all been waiting for you!" said Molly Sr., giving the two, sleepy boys big Christmas hugs, stuffing presents into their hands as she let go. "Happy Christmas!"

"Happy Christmas" they muttered, giving everyone sleepy smiles. Scorpius's smile faltered slightly when he met Ron's cold gaze, but he recovered quickly.

"Um, I think you'd better open this first Al," said Ginny, passing Al a large box. "We all helped pick this one out! We know you'll like her."

Al tore through the wrapping and revealed a cushioned cage with a small kitten in it. She was sleeping, but woke up when Al let out a girly squeal. She stood, her shinny, silver fur glistening as though it had been expose to one of the twins firecrackers, and hits huge green eyes staring curiously at Al, who took it out and gave her a big hug.

"I'M CALLING HER MRS. SNUGGLES!" he announced proudly.

"How you managed to be placed in Slytherin, I will never know," muttered Scorpius, rolling his eyes. "Speaking of which, she's silver and green, your house's colors. I noticed that. That's why we chose her… and she reminded us all of you… she's completely mental…"

"OOOO! SHE IS MY HOUSE COLORS! IN THAT CASE I'LL NAME HER… Salizar? Salizar Jr….no she's a girl… salazina… Ms. Salizina! SALLY FOR SHORT!"

"…I rest my case," finished Scorpius, Al having just given perfect examples of being both crazy, and not a Slytherin.

The next present was for Scorpius, from Al. Scorpius unwrapped it enthusiastically, uncovering a small box.

"You mentioned that you wanted it," said Al as Scorpius opened the box, "but you said your _father _wouldn't allow it. AND I SAY FIGHT THE POWER THAT IS YOUR FATHER!" He punched the air with his fist. "Oh, and I think it will look quite nice on you." (a/n if I am hinting at any albusxscorpius shipping it isn't intentional. I do enjoy that shipping but it is not part of this fic. Al is straight in this fic…. For now!... I actually will probably keep him straight but no promises ((why does everyone think hes gay? Is it because there literally aren't any second generation girls who we know of hat aren't his sister/cousin?)) Maybe he'll marry his kitty… ((lost in thought)))

Scorpius grinned as he saw what was in the box. It was a small, gold earring. He had mentioned that he had always liked earrings but his dad disapproved. It seemed Al didn't care what his father thought. Looking closer, Scorpius noticed something very small engraved on the side, so small he could barely read it. He managed to decipher the words "Scorpy: the fairest of them all" (a/n I know I just mentioned how much I think I am hinting at this shipping but actually Al just really likes to mock him for how pretty he is because it makes Scorpius uncomfortable.) Scorpius immediately punched Al in the face, no doubt adding to his bruise collection, and thought thankfully that nobody would be able to see something that small unless they were actually looking.

"Thanks, Al," he said, "I'll get someone to pierce my ear later if anyone knows how," and before Al could say anything he said "ANYONE but you."

Next was Roses, from Scorpius. It was in a pretty bag, in blue, Rose's favorite color. James, who had bet on jewelry with some sort of heart somewhere on it, crossed his fingers, while Al watched calmly from his seat, having a pretty good idea of what it was.

Out of the bag emerged a book that looked far too big to have fit. The cover read "100,000,00 interesting facts about the wizarding world that you defiantly didn't know!" She flipped through it, a broad grin spreading across her face as she realized that it didn't merely mention each thing in a boring list, but had long, in-depth chapters about each one. The book was charmed to look shorter than it was, and even with that, everyone in the room except Rose, Scorpius, Louis, and Hermione looked shocked at the size.

"THANK YOU!" she shouted, giving Scorpius a brief, one-armed hug, while supporting the book with her other arm.

"Um, excuse me," said the quiet, dainty voice of Victoire, her mild French accent audible in the silence. "Me and Teddy have an announcement!" She grinned a brilliant grin and looked at Teddy, whose arms were around her waist.

"Yesterday night, I asked Victoire to marry me," he said, also grinning. "And she said yes!" Everyone cheered loudly, giving hugs and kisses. Scorpius had actually grown quite close to Teddy in the last week or so, and he got up and gave him a hug. Under normal circumstances he would've been skeptical because she was only 17, but he knew better. They had since Teddy started at Hogwarts, when he was 11 and Victoire was only 8. She had told him that she had a crush on him when he left for Hogwarts, and, four years later, she admitted that she still liked him, and they started dating. They had only told their family a year ago, but everyone had always wondered.

Everyone was happy. The excitement of Christmas plus this exciting news made it one of the best holidays ever. And everyone was very excited about Scorpius. He got along well with most of them, particularly Dominique, Louis, Teddy, Hermione and Harry. The only one that didn't seem to particularly enjoy his company was, of coarse, Ron.

Ron had been avoiding Scorpius. He could tell that he wasn't a bad guy, but wasn't quite ready to let go of the old prejudice. It also seemed to bother him that Hermione got along so well with him, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Hermione is basically an older version of Rose.

It was 6 days after Christmas, and the two nerds were still lounging on the couch, reading their books. Rose had given Scorpius a book as well, which surprised no one. He was sitting on the couch reading his brand new copy of "A wizard of Earthsea." Rose had gotten him five books, knowing one would only last him a week, and he was already half way through his second. She was only about an eight through her book, though she had read more than Scorpius.

She was leaning on the arm of the couch, while he leaned slightly on her arm. She glanced at him, noticing something on his new earring.

"'Scorpius: the-'" Then she noticed what she was reading. He leaped off the couch and she followed. When it was clear that he was faster than her, she just immobilized him.

"No fair!" he tried to say. "You aren't supposed to use magic!"

"'Scorpius: The fairest of them all!'" she read, laughing. "That's why Al's got a new bruise. Well you are quite pretty." He glared at her as best he could without actually moving. She just giggled at him and released him with a flick of her wand.

"That cousin of yours drives me crazy!" he shouted, which only increased her giggles. "And so do you!"

"Sorry 'bout that, Scorp. But it really is quite funny… and fitting. You do have that evil queen look to you." She just kept laughing hysterically, falling back onto the couch. He looked at her angrily for a moment, but then started to chuckle to.

"I've been compared to a gorgeous vampire and a the fairest evil queen of them all. I'm recognizing a pattern," he said, still laughing a bit.

"Shut up!" she laughed, throwing a pillow at him, "or I'll give you more bruises than Al!"

"Don't worry, Rose. You aren't the only one who can't resist my unbearable charm. All the girls notice it… and I think Al does too," he smiled to himself in an I'm-so-popular-everyone-loves-me kinda way.

"Ha! Don't be so full of your self! Anyway, Al's dating that Annabelle girl or whatever her name was…"

"Annabeth, I think…"

They laughed, remembering how Al had had 5 girlfriends since school started. He was probably the only guy in their year that was already dating.

"You know, I think he might really like her," said Rose, smiling.

"Yeah, well if he doesn't like me, Dominique defiantly does," said Scorpius in the same, boastful voice.

"Eeew! She's, like, thirteen! She's two years above us!"

"Not as bad as Teddy and Victoire ," mused Scorpius, with a thoughtful look.

"Do you like her?" said Rose, in a surprised and, if you listened closely, slightly jealous voice. Scorpius was listening closely. He smiled a smile that greatly resembled his father's old sneers, detecting the subtle jealousy in her tone.

"I don't know. She's quite pretty."

"Duh! She's part veela!"

"And very nice…"

"I don't think she likes you."

"What makes you say that?"

"She's dating someone."

"Well in that case, I defiantly don't like her, but that was worth it just to make you that obviously jealous," he said, now defiantly sneering.

"WAS NOT!"

"Was too"

"WAS NOT!"

"You two act like five year olds, you know," said Teddy from where he had been drawing, completely forgotten. Drawing was a hobby of his. "You're honestly worse than Al."

"That's an exaggeration!" said Rose.

"_AM NOT! AM TOO! AM NOT! AM TOO!"_ said Teddy in a mock baby voice.

"Um, I think I'll call her Mrs. Snuggles?" said Scorpius in a stating-the-obvious way.

"Whatever. How 'bout you continue reading? You two looked adorable all cuddled up on the couch together," said Teddy, in a mocking voice.

"WHAT!?!?" they said in unison, blushing intensely.

*New Years Eve*

"FIRECRACKERS!"

"FIRECRACKERS FOR EVERYONE!"

"ONLY ONE GALLEON!"

Roxanne and Fred were wandering through the house where everyone, including Hagrid, the Lovegoods and Professor Longbottm, were gathered for a new years party. They were handing out festive firecrackers that they had recently perfected, to anyone who would take them. They new edition made party hats or masks appear out of the smoke. Soon everyone was glittering, coughing and wearing ridiculous hats. They all corresponded to the person who exploded them, so Scorpius was wearing a mask that was covered with enchanted, dancing scorpions, and Rose was wearing a tiara of roses that kept blooming, dying and blooming again, spreading rose petals everywhere she went.

The party was tons of fun. The adults were all drinking champagne, and the kids got butterbeer as a treat, excepting, of coarse, Lorcan, Lysander, Lily and Hugo, who settled for pumpkin juice. There was confetti everywhere, only this confetti was enchanted to sing random songs quietly, also courtesy of the twins, until there was an annoying, indistinguishable humming noise everywhere anyone went, and Angelina banished it. That made the singing louder. This and April fools day were the twins favorite days of the year.

Al was enjoying himself, too, having abused the buttebeer privileges horribly. He and James were in the living room, plotting something with the twins. As Rose and Scorpius entered the room, James turned around, smiling at them in a horribly suspicious way.

"Another butterbeer?" he said, offering them each a glass. They normally would've said no, but decided it was fine on new years.

As they walked away, sipping their drinks and talking, James gave Al the thumbs up, and the twins high fived.

It was almost midnight, and Lorcan and Lysander were peacefully sleeping on the couch, while Lily and Hugo protested to their parents telling them to go to be, hiding yawns poorly. The parents allowed them to stay up till midnight, but no later.

"Hey Scorpy. Do you know that thing about counting down on new years and you have to kiss someone?" asked Al innocently, making Scorpius blush (A/N AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO IS STARTING TO WANT AL AND SCORP TO FALL IN LOVE!?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY!) "When the clock strikes 12 you have to kiss someone or you'll be lonely for the whole year… which would suck. I've arranged to kiss Annette," _so that's her name_ "by … um, flu powder!"

"Really?" asked a skeptical, and still blushing Scorpius.

"No, but I can wish, can't I?" said Al, pouting. As if on cue, several of the people started counting down.

10

Rose was right next to him.

9

He had never kissed anyone.

8

The confetti stuck in his ear was singing "Kiss the Girl" loudly

7

Rose was seriously _right _next to him

6

And looking really, really pretty

5

He was only 11!

4

He seriously didn't need to have his first kiss yet

3

He really liked Rose

2

People were hugging! Married couples and Teddy and Victoire were getting ready to kiss!

1

He had had enough loneliness to last a lifetime

0

Scorpius reached over and gave Rose a small kiss on the lips. It was really quite awkward but he didn't regret it. She blushed, but looked very happy. He too blushed, and looked a bit more embarrassed than Rose.

The people around them were cheering, but only some of them were cheering for Rose and Scorpius. Al and James and the Twins were cheering the loudest, happily drinking their butterbeer.

Something shattered on the other side of the room, but nobody heard except Ron. He was standing there, hand bleeding, with several shards of a wine glass in his hand. He looked positively murderous.

*Next Morning*

Rose awoke sleepily in her bed, being shaken by the shoulder. She looked up sleepily and saw Scorpius. She wondered what was wrong before she remembered the previous night. She blushed bright red and her eyes widened.

"Al," was all Scorpius offered in explanation She was puzzled for a moment, before she remembered the marauders plotting and offering them drinks. Spiked drinks.

"WHA-" exclaimed Al as the two pushed him off the bed, but he stopped, seeing the looks on their faces. James and the twins were woken up in the same manner.

They were all gathered around the kitchen table. Nobody else was up yet.

"What. Did. You. Do?" said Rose, forcing each word through gritted teeth.

"You would've done it anyway!" said Roxanne.

"Honest! There wasn't any love potion or anything in the butterbeer! Just a bit of stuff to help you with the whole coward thing!" said Fred defensively.

"Really?" asked Rose, unable to hide the very slight hint of hopefulness with her inquisitive voice.

"Well," said James, shifting around uncomfortably. "There might have been a drop of love potion… but seriously only a drop!"

"It was pretty much to make sure you liked each other enough to actually kiss," continued Al. "I mean, everyone with eyes knows you two like each other," they blushed, "But in all seriousness, you guys are the densest people in the school."

"Aunt Ginny," said Rose.

"And Angelina," added Scorpius.

"Are going to ground you," growled Rose.

"Permanently," finished Scorpius.

"That was even creepier than when we do that," said the twins in perfect unison.

Rose and Scorpius ignored them and left to get the adults.

"We never have to speak of this again, right?" asked Scorpius, cauciously.

"Right," answered Rose with finality.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

(A/N thanks to everyone who wrote reviews! Btw I think this story shall end when they end their first year… and then have a cute epilogue :D HOORAY!)

"Rose!" cried Andy, running to catch up with her and Scorpius on their way to lunch. It was only a week after vacation and already she had found some gossip worth shouting about. "Did you hear? Al's in the hospital wing!" Rose and Scorpius rolled their eyes.

"What'd he do this time? Break his wrist again? Cause I am not visiting him again for something like that. Madame Pomfrey can have him fixed up in five minutes and I really would rather go to lunch."

"No! He got bitten by the third year's venomous tentacula! It tried to strangle him but nobody noticed for a while because the mandrakes were there so they were wearing earmuffs. He was getting something in the back room. You should-" then she was cut off, because Rose shoved past her, heading in the other direction, followed shortly by Scorpius.

When they entered, Madame Pomfrey turned on them angrily. "You three are impossible! Most injuries I can heal in an instant! You three manage to find things that take time! Cracked skulls! Charmed burns! Beaten half to death by the Womping Willow! NOW THIS!" she shouted, pointing at the bed right behind her, looking absolutely mad. Rose and Scorpius hurried to their best friends side, looking at his disfigured face. There were obvious marks from where the plant had tried to strangle him, and his arm was bandaged from his wrist almost to his shoulder, a strange, purple tint on the skin that was visible on hit arm. His face was pale and he was unconscious.

"There's a reason only fifth years get to handle those things. And why even NEWT wizards have to wear full protective gear while near one! Most of them are just babies, but this one was the full grown one they only keep in the back for the herbology section of the NEWTs!" Madame Pomfrey threw up her hands in an I don't understan-these-people-and-refuse-to-be-associated-with-them-any-longer-so-its-your-problem-now kinda way, and stormed from the room

"Al, you idiot," said Rose, pushing the hair out of his face.

"I agree wholeheartedly with that statement," added Scorpius, sitting on the other side of the bed.

"Venomous tentacula are extremely dangerous! Anyone with eyes knows that! They just look evil! And their venom takes forever to heal and it will probably leave scars!" shouter Rose, flopping down into the chair she was next to.

"He'll be fine, Rose," said Scorpius. "Just a bit… " He couldn't finish the sentence. They both knew that these injuries could take anywhere from a week to several months to heal completely, and Al would feel very sick, and probably be asleep half the time. Depending on how matured the plant was, these bites could be pretty bad."My-… my mom got bitten once. I don't think it was this bad but she was in bed for a week. She seemed pretty normal, though. Sleepy, and a bit dazed. She threw up a few times and said it hurt a bit, but she said there's worse things."

"Oh," was all Rose could think to say.

They waited around for a while, but Al showed no signs of life, other than the slight heaving of his chest as he breathed, and occasionally twitching slightly. Eventually a boy from their potions class came in to tell them that they would be put in detention if they didn't come now. Rose wanted to stay, but Scorpius grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her to class, saying that staying was useless.

During the next week, Rose was in a constant state of panic. Scorpius was feeling similarly, but wasn't showing it as much. They were taking shifts, visiting him after dinner or during a break once a day, usually accompanied by one or two of Al's other friends or family. One such night, Scorpius was had dozed off and when he awoke he found himself alone in the dark. He wondered what had woken him up, before he heard a noise. Looking around, he saw Al stirring in his bed, the sheets rustling loudly.

He jumped up from where he was lying and sprinted to his common room as fast as he could.

"Where have you been?" asked Rose when Scorpius fell through the doorway, panting. "I thought you'd be back, like, an hour ago!"

"Its… Al…" he said, in between breaths. Roses eyes widened. "I think… he's waking… up…" without further ado, Rose sprang from her seat and jumped out of the open door, followed shortly by Louis, who was yelling something about being Al's cousin too. Scorpius followed, slower, having already run this length, only up stairs.

Rose reached the doorway first, followed by Louis, and then, several moments later, an exhausted Scorpius. They all sat down by the bed, just in time to see Al sit up, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Wha- what happened," he asked, stifling a yawn. He opened his eyes for the first time in eight days, blinking blearily at his surroundings.

"You know what happened? YOU SCARED US ALL TO DEATH, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!" shouted Rose, surprising everyone. "NEXT TIME YOU GET SOMETHING FROM THE HERBOLOGY CLOSET, DON'T YOU EVEN _THINK_ ABOUT GETTING NEAR THAT BLASTED VENOMOUS TENTACULA!"

"Venomous tenta-?" he started, before remembering. His eyes widened in shock. "Bloody hell! That thing tried to kill me!"

"We've noticed," said Louis, gesturing to the bandages that were still wrapped tightly around his purple arm, and the remaining scars, dents and bruises that were all along his neck and upper back. With one look, Al fainted.

"I can't tell if that was because he's squeamish, or because he's still sick," muttered Scorpius, still shocked.

"Both," replied Rose. "He once fainted because I told him that the reason Louis had to stop playing with us was because a bug bit him and it got infected. He never liked things like that."

"I've still got a scar from it. And it wasn't a bug! It was a horribly venomous cactus, and it's not my fault Neville likes collecting those things," said Louis, pulling up the sleeves of his robes to reveal a thin scar.

"And he didn't even see all the blood…" muttered Rose, shuddering at the memory.

"I think we can use this against him," said Scorpius thoughtfully. "when he gets better, of coarse."

The three headed back to their dorms, since it was late and they were tired. They left a note for Madame Pomfrey, telling her that Al had woken up, and left.

Over the next two weeks, the family and friends continued to visit him. Sometimes he would faint, sometimes he would say something random and insane (more so than usual) and some times he would throw up, but, in general, everyone saw improvement as the weeks went by. Half way through the third week Madame Pomfrey announced, to Al's disgust, that he would be released from the hospital wing within the next week, and he could spend that time trying to make up for some of the work he had missed. Visitors would be allowed only after dinner, and the only ones who visited him nightly were Rose and Scorpius, bringing bits of dessert, as it was preferable to hospital food. At one point, Ginny and Harry came in by flew powder, just to check in on him. They had done so when he was still asleep and once shortly after he awoke. Now they came to say how happy they were that he was getting well.

On the day that he was allowed to return to classes, everyone threw a party. He was quite popular, but the only ones invited were his family, Scorpius, a few of his other, very close friends, and Annette.

"Will these scars be there… forever?" asked Al, looking down at his mildly scarred arm, and remembering what he had seen on his neck when he looked in the mirror.

"Probably," said Rose, getting bored of telling him that repeatedly. "Al, just be happy that you're out of the bloody hospital wing."

At this point, Annabeth dragged him off to talk with some of her friends. They were all girly, preppy and slightly annoying, but Al was fine with that.

"Merlin! When I have a girlfriend, she'd better not drag me off to talk with her friends every five minutes if they're anything like _that_," said Scorpius, looking disgusted at the group of girls that were now playing truth or dare with Al. All you could really hear from this distance were giggles. Scorpius shuddered at the thought. "It'd be like being surrounded by Al at all times… only more annoying… and more of them…" he continued. There was an uncomfortable silence in which they blushed. Despite their promise to forget New Years completely, anytime they weren't actually talking about something or mentioned anything that had to do with kissing, or dating. This didn't happen often, but when it did thy always blushed.

"I'm gonna go… get some more food… yeah" muttered Rose, disappearing into the crowd. The moment she was gone, arms grabbed Scorpius, wrapping themselves over his shoulders. He looked around, not surprised to see the twins leaning on him from either side.

"What was that about!" said Roxanne in a slightly sarcastic voice.

"It couldn't have been out harmless little trick we played on New Years, could it have been?" said Fred in mock surprise.

"Hm. Let me think," said Scorpius sarcastically. He got along fine with the twins, but they had a way of getting to him even quicker than Al could. "Yeah! Might've had something to do with that!" concluded Scorpius.

"OH! Fred, darling, you don't suppose it could've also been that these two are completely hopeless?"

"Quite right, Roxy! Very dense."

"Go away," said Scorpius flatly.

"Does little Scorpy not appreciate our helpful comments?"

"It would seem not!"

"Maybe _little Scorpy_ would appreciate them more if they were a little… hm… lets think… HELPFUL! EVER THINK OF THAT!"

"Fine," said Roxanne.

"We'll bring our advice elsewhere," added Fred. Then, to Scorpius' horror, they headed directly for where Rose was standing, drinking pumpkin juice.

"Rosie, my dear!" said Fred, putting an arm around Rose.

"We couldn't help but notice your hilariously awkward crush on Scorpius!" said Roxanne, coming up on the other side of Rose.

Rose blushed bright pink, backing away from the two of them and ducking out from under their arms. She basically made a run for it. Scorpius watched as she ran up the stairs to her dorm, since they had taken over the Ravenclaw common room for the party.

Forgetting how dumb an idea it was, he tried to follow her. Immediately, the stairs gave way beneath him, letting him slide back into the common room on his face. Everyone laughed at him. As soon as everyone's attention was safely concentrated on anything but him, Scorpius started to climb the slide slowly, clutching the banister to keep him steady, and slowing down every time the slide tried to shake him off. He wasn't quite sure why he was this desperate to talk to her, but there wasn't anything better for him at the party, other than the twins teasing and "advice."

"H-how'd you get up here?" asked Rose, surprised and still blushing.

"Persistence," said Scorpius, shrugging and breathing heavily from the effort it had taken.

"Any particular reason?" asked Rose, looking at him skeptically.

"Do you think you were the only one the twins were bugging?" replied Scorpius, taking a seat on her bed next to her, and ignoring her blush increasing.

"Worse than Al," muttered Rose angrily.

"True."

The two sat quietly for a few minutes, before an owl broke the silence and the window. Rose gasped and repaired the window, catching the falling owl. It was Athena.

"It's windy! She shouldn't even have been flying!" said Scorpius, looking out the newly repaired window. Rose grabbed the letter and started reading.

"Dear Rose, blahblahblah invited to our wedding, blahblahblah July 5th, blahblahblah Love, Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley… PS We also invi-" She stopped reading abruptly, throwing the letter across the room.

Scorpius got up and retrieved it from the bed it had landed on, flattening it out. He looked it over and saw a PS that was handwritten at the bottom. It said 'PS we also invited Scorpy. He can be your date!" Next to the last word, they had drawn little hearts. Scorpius blushed, opened his mouth to say something, closed it and left, falling clumsily down the newly formed slide.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

_"Ahh!" cried Scorpius, cowering in the shadow of his father._

_"You __**fell asleep!?**__" shouted the towering man, slashing his wand through the air again, as though it were a whip. The bow yelled in pain, falling to the floor. "I hired you the best magic tutor in Europe! I bought you the best training wand available! And this is how you repay me!? By being an insufferable slacker!?" With one last wave of his wand, he left, shaking his head and muttering angrily._

_Scorpius sat where he was for a moment or two, still crying from pain. He looked around cautiously before standing up gingerly. He made his way slowly up the stairs, entering the room at the end of the long, beautiful hall. He shut the expensive double doors behind him, turning on the lights as he entered. _

_"Scorpius? Darling, is that you?" came a weak voice from the bed. A woman sat up slowly, turning her beautiful face toward the sound that had woken her. Her face lit up slightly as her dark, green eyes met those of her only child, a childish smile appearing on her lips. She was a stunningly beautiful woman, with long, straight, black hair and a face that was always expressive and glowing in such a way that she rarely wore makeup. She held her arms open, embracing the small child of only nine. _

_Scorpius smiled back, trying as hard as he could to conceal the remnants of tears in his eyes as he crawled into bed. He curled up next to his mother, who simply embraced him and stroked his hair, humming a lullaby. _

_"How…" said Scorpius, his voice cracking. "How could someone like him… have married you?" he asked, closing his eyes. _

_Astoria laughed a girly laugh. "My dearest Scorpius, if anyone else were to ask such a thing, I would think it was either sarcasm or flattery. But knowing you, you're actually wondering why I would ever marry him." She paused and thought for a moment. "You know your father; he's very kind deep down… very shy. He's also quite smart. I love him." She laughed again, giving Scorpius a big hug. "I love you too!" She ruffled his hair. _

_"Why would he like you?" asked Scorpius. "I always got the impression that he was the sort of person that would like cold, unpleasant, dreary, harsh things and people… you know, like him! It's very fitting since he seems to like himself quite a lot!"_

_At this she just hugged him tighter, making him wince slightly, still being in pain, but making him smile as well. _

_"He hurt you again, didn't he?" asked his mother, the look on her face changing to concern. She had known since he walked in, but knew he didn't like it when she could tell right away. Scorpius shifted uncomfortably, avoiding her eyes._

_"Hey mamma… are you gonna be out of bed for my birthday?" he asked, avoiding the question. She looked at him sadly._

_"I don't know, dear. The doctor didn't tell me." She looked at him sadly. "But I have a whole month for that!" she said brightening up. "Tell ya what! If I'm in bed on your birthday, you have to promise to come in here and give me a hug for all ten years you've been alive!" Scorpius smiled at her, nodding. She always treated him like a child younger than he was, but it only made him love her more. Scorpius and his mom were closer to each other than they were to anyone else in the world, except for maybe Astoria and Draco._

_Scorpius turned around and suddenly things were different. He found himself in his father's office, in the familiar position of crouching and cowering against a wall. He was suddenly aware that he was no longer in his mother's comforting grasp, and, even though he was almost 11, he was wishing he was back in her arms like a baby. Instead of that, her arms were spread out in front of him, shielding him with her whole body, frail though it was._

_"Draco! NO! Don't hurt our son! I WON'T LET YOU!"_

_"Don't hurt __**yourself,**__ Astoria! And please don't make me hurt you!"_

_"What did he do wrong!? TELL ME! __**Why do you think you have any right to lay a hand on our only son, Draco?! TELL ME!"**__ She was sobbing unbearably as she spoke, flinging herself at her husband and punching him weakly, while leaning on him for support at the same time. He looked shocked and pushed her to the ground, where she lay still, before advancing on his son._

_"Your fault! All your fault! She was defending you, and for what? It didn't accomplish anything accept to get you both hurt and it was all your fault! Now you're just going to get a worse beating! Scorpius… Scorpius! SCORPIUS! __**SCORPOIUS!!!"**_

__"Scorpius! Wake up!" said a person who was sitting above Scorpius, a hand on his forehead. "You seriously slept in there, Scorp," said Rose coming into focus as Scorpius adjusted to the light. (A/N um… I suppose I should add that I don't own fruits basket to my disclaimer because I think that's probably where I got some of that from… I will say no more for fear of ruining one of my favorite episodes of furuba for any of u who watch/read it)

"What time is it…" he muttered, very shaken up from his dream.

"Around… 12:36."

Had he not been feeling like he was tied to the bed and any movement would make him throw up, he would've had room in his mind to be shocked, but as it was, he just accepted this information without argument.

"Nobody could wake you up, so I came in and… well, your kinda sick."

"Oh…" was all he said.

"Oh?" asked Rose incredulously. "The Scorpius I know hates sick days! He hates missing school almost as much as me… unless he's skiving and therefore missing class of his own free will. What's up?" She sat down beside him and stroked the hair away from his hot forehead, a worried look on her face. It reminded him so much of his dream that it sent shivers down his spine.

"Nothing… just a… b-bad dream," he said, blushing slightly at the foolishness of it all.

"Must've been a bad one to shake you up this much," said Rose softly. "Was it- I mean, did it have anything to do with… y-your mother?" she asked timidly. He nodded, looking away.

"Would you mind… would it bother you… to tell me about her?" asked Rose, still more timidly. He shook his head.

"She… she was amazing," he said quietly, voice cracking slightly. He was looking away to avoid her seeing, but Rose could hear the crying in his voice. "She was nice and funny and always helpful… she could always cheer me up… she was the only one who kn-knew what Father did to m-me… the only one who ever tried to stand up for me. She was nothing like my father. She got sick a lot, though, and we never knew why. Apparently this time she just…" he trailed off.

"Didn't get better," finished Rose quietly. He nodded, brushing a tear off his cheek.

He talked for a while, eventually cheering up slightly, reliving happy memories with his mom.

"Alright then," said Rose, standing up. "I think we better take you to the hospital wing." He looked unhappy about this, but she just shook her head. "You'll get better faster there. You can't stay in here all day! I'll say you got me sick too, so I can keep missing classes." He looked shocked, realizing that Rose had missed an entire class while talking to him. "Up!" she threw off his sheets and dragged him by his feet, giving up when it proved more difficult than anticipated. "Come on, Scorp. Please…"

He couldn't say no, so he got up and Rose went downstairs while he got dressed. As soon as he came down, still looking sleepy and sick, they headed out.

Half an hour later, Rose was sitting by Scorpius building an elaborate replica of the Hogwarts castle out of exploding snap cards while Scorpius slept. Rose had just put the last card in, finishing the north tower, when the cards blew up in her face, singeing the table slightly. A small giggle came from behind her.

"Sorry," said the girl, a fellow first year who Rose didn't know very well, but who was named Anna. "I just came by because I heard Scorp was sick." '_Scorp?'_ thought Rose, discussed at how she used the nickname that only herself and Al could use. "I came by to give him a get well present, but I guess he's getting some rest." 'No duh! He's sick! Do you think I would wake him up for you?' thought Rose, coldly, but smiling and nodding on the outside. "Can I give this to you? Will you make sure he gets it? Promise?"

"Of course," said Rose in a sweet voice, smiling an uncharacteristically cheesy smile. She waited until the girl left before looking over the present. It consisted of some chocolate frogs and a letter. 'Dear Scorp… she can't use that!... I hope you feel better… miss you in herbology… Oh that's where I know her from… xoxo… XOXO!?!? Who does she think she is?" thought Rose disgustedly, reading the attached letter. "Xoxo… Yours truly, Anna…" Rose read it again, a slight grimace appearing on her face as she did so. Then she decided what best to do. She folded it into a paper airplane, threw it into the air, and shot a spell at it before it hit the ground, causing it to burst into flames. She handled the chocolate in a similar manner, considering eating one before realizing that it could be spiked with love potion.

"Scorp," muttered Rose several hours later, nudging the sleeping Scorpius. He opened his eyes slowly, blinked several times and then smiled weakly. "You ok?"

"'M fine," he said, sitting up shakily. "Just a bit tired. That potion worked well…"

"You awake enough to head to dinner with me?" asked Rose. A moment after she said this she realized that it could conceivably sound like she was asking him to dinner. She blushed, but Scorpius couldn't see because he had nodded and already started to pull his sweater on over his head. It was lucky for him too, because he had just thought the same thing and Rose would've seen his blush if it weren't for the sweater.

They headed to dinner together and when they got in a crowd of girls crowded around Scorpius, shoving Rose out of the way. She felt terrible. As she watched all of them asking him how he felt, she felt extremely jealous, noticing every time Scorpius smiled at one of them and inwardly making note of the girls face so it would be easier to hold a grudge against them for life.

Two weeks went by very quickly, and by the end of them there were a lot of people getting excited. The first game between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw since before winter break was coming up and not even the terrible weather that April had brought could bring down their spirits. They had been having early morning practices every day that week and there was no way Ravenclaw could lose. Or at least that's what they thought. Gryffindor had been training similarly, every day after school.

Everyone was there. The stadium was full and all the players were on the field, preparing to mount their brooms. They didn't know that this would be a record game within five minutes.

Several minutes in, Rose and Scorpius were right on James's tail, missing him but getting closer each time. On the other end of the field this was being mirrored with Roxanne and Fred chasing Louis. Then the strangest coincidence happened. At the same time, Scorpius aimed a blow at James's head and he, being distracted by the shinny, gold, snitch-like wristwatch he had spotted in the audience, didn't dodge. At the exact same time, Louis was diving toward the real snitch, inches away, when a nicely aimed bludger from Roxanne hit him directly in the back. Louis hit the ground head-on, followed shortly by James, who landed flat on his back, a sickening cracking noise coming from his elbow. Madame Pomfrey rushed onto the field and levitated them away, and the game, having no seekers was ended as a draw.

Disappointed, the soaked teams headed into the changing rooms and got into some dry clothes. Rose was among the first to leave, saying that she'd meet Scorpius in the common room and they could work on potions. No sooner than she had left, however, she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She was steered away from the changing room slightly. Once the hand let go, she turned around and looked into the handsome face of Andrew Wood, her ex-crush, who was standing no more than a foot away. They hadn't spoken since the incident that Fall.

"Nice shot," he said, awkwardly.

"Thanks," said Rose, wondering why he didn't say this to Scorpius, who actually made a nice shot.

"Yeah. It would've been a nice game if it weren't for the lack of seekers and the weather."

"Speaking of which, it's kinda cold out here. Think you could tell me why you brought me here and then we can go inside?" asked Rose, getting déjà vu.

"Well, I just thought we hadn't talked in a while and you've been getting better at quidditch so thought I'd say that I think you were great."

"Oh. Thanks. So how've you been? How's the girlfriend?" she asked, reminding him of their last meeting.

"Oh. Alyssa… That ended… like a week ago," he said, not sounding very sad.

"Sorry," said Rose, not particularly caring.

"Actually, that's another reason why I'm here," he said. "I was wondering if maybe you would want to be my girlfriend. I know you like me…" He blushed and Rose was wondering how she never noticed how awkward and annoying he was.

"I'm not sure Hufflepuff suits you," was her only response. "Too fickle," she muttered, turning away. She paused and looked back after a moment. "And for the record, I _don't _like you. I like someone… Someone better," she said with finality. At this she turned and walked away, leaving Andrew standing in the rain with a dumb look on his face.

The moment Rose entered her common room, Scorpius basically attacked her. He leapt from his seat by the window and grabbed Rose.

"What was that all about!?" he asked, gesturing out the window to where Andrew was still standing in a state of shock.

"How did you-"

"I got back before you so I looked out the window and saw what happened. Only thing is, I couldn't hear so I didn't really get it. Next time he wants to talk in private, he should go somewhere you can't see from everywhere in the bloody castle."

Rose explained what had happened.

"You like someone else?" asked Scorpius. She nodded. "WHO!?!?!?"

"Oh no! I am NEVER telling you. Firstly you'd laugh for DAYS and secondly it doesn't matter since he'll just turn me down so I'm not even gonna tell him. Ever." Normally Scorpius would've protested, but he was satisfied as long as she didn't go confessing her love to anyone. It didn't even occur to him that he himself was the very person she liked.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

(A/N ok it just occurred to me that I skipped valentines day…. Well lets all just go ahead and assume that… um… everybody decided to let our poor heroes have a day off from the stressful shipping… kay?)

Spring made everyone happy. It was peaceful. Tea at Hagrid's every weekend, Ms. Muffy being suspended for basically everything about her and Professor Longbottom spending a week showing them some plants that have a smell that makes people happy and have many medical qualities. Basically everything was awesome… until they realized that they had exams in under a month. The spring had been the perfect example of "time flies when you're having fun."

With only two and a half weeks remaining before exams, and only one more after that before break, the Ravenclaw house was going crazy. Exams in Ravenclaw were like nothing else ever experienced. It is the one time when all the smartest students in the school live in the library for an entire month. It isn't an exaggeration. About 20 students per year generally end up spending all their time in the library and even spend the night and bring sleeping bags. Rose and Scorpius were among those few, along with Louis who decided it would be worth it since his cousin was there. It had become such a tradition in Hogwarts over the last few years that they had even made arrangements so the no-food law would be lifted for three weeks every spring, so that they could have midnight snacks. With Potions class being over for the duration of the year, until they could find a new teacher for next year, that just gave them extra time.

About one week into this study-athon, Al decided to pay a visit.

"Finally decided to study, have we?" asked Rose, grabbing a book from Scorpius's pile discreetly.

"Of coarse…. Not," said Al with a smile. "I reserve that for June 13th!"

"That's the day before the test you idiot," said Scorpius, grabbing the book back. "And I had this first!" the two started arguing and eventually ended up in a book fight, which Madame Pince, being too busy to bother with it, decided to let go.

Al just watched them, smiling slyly.

"You're planning something, aren't you?" asked Louis, pausing as he walked by with a bunch of books, following Al's eyes to the funny scene in front of them.

"Oh no," said Al. "On the contrary. I was merely thinking that my work here is done and they will have the perfect opportunity to tell each other their feeling at the wedding next month, at the wedding. For once I am not planning anything at all!" Louis just continued to walk, an unimpressed look on his face.

"You never cease to amaze me," he muttered as he left.

"Why thank you!" shouted Al, prancing after him and disappearing into the abyss of the crowded library.

During the next week or so, Rose and Scorpius had a contest to see who could read the most books. They snuck books into every class, skipped most meals and spent all their free time in the library, only getting about an hour of sleep a night. People told them it was unhealthy, but they only stopped reading for a moment to hex them and get back to their books. At midnight on Sunday they were in the library, all the other top students peering over their shoulders. Each of them was counting off a list of books. Scorpius was counting Rose's three pages of book names written in small handwriting while Rose was reading his four page list in slightly bigger writing. After that, they looked at the page number which had also been recorded and added it all together.

"Scorpius, you read 36023 pages this week." Scorpius looked down at his notes and went completely pale.

"Rose… y-you read, u-um, 36046 p-pages." Everyone who was standing by Rose cheered madly and Rose grinned.

"You know what?" said Scorpius. Rose raised an eyebrow. "So you can read slightly faster than me. So what? I think its pretty apparent that we are evenly matched as far as brains go so how about this:" Rose listened, nodding in agreement that they were equally smart. "A duel."

"Neither of us has ever dueled before!" said Rose, shocked.

"We know how, though," said Scorpius, grinning.

She considered for a moment before grinning too. "You're. on." Louis sighed in exasperation, but followed the group as they headed toward the grounds so as not to destroy their precious books.

Everyone was amazed. It was better than most of them could even hope to be and they were all at least a year older than the two. Rose and Scorpius dueled, using curses they had learned in their reading.

"Conjunctivitis!" shouted Rose, causing Scorpius to put his hands to his eyes in pain, aiming disarming spells at her blindly.

"Expelliarmus!" he shouted, finally disarming her, giving him time to recover while she searched for her wand, almost as blind as he was, it was so dark.

"Locomotor Mortis!" she shouted, getting a hold on her wand. Scorpius fell backwards, unable to move his legs.

"Two can play at that game, Rosie!" he shouted. He turned around and sent a nicely aimed jelly-legs jinx at her before she had time to react. Now both of them were on the ground, unable to use their legs.

"Rictusempra!" shouted Rose, as they both started to recover.

"Not fair!" said Scorpius, laughing. He had just regained control over his legs and now he was down again, laughing as Rose used the tickling charm on him.

The duel went on for another five minutes or so before both became exhausted. They had barely slept in two weeks, so it was understandable. They decided it was a draw and the spectators helped get them back to the library and into their sleeping bags.

The next morning they woke up to a familiar sight. They were in the hospital wing.

"AH! WHAT HAPPENED?" exclaimed Rose. "How come we're in here!?" At the sound of her screaming, Scorpius awoke as well, and a livid Madame Pomfrey barged in from her office.

"YOU ARE IN HERE," she said, "BECAUSE MADAME PINCE WALKED INTO HER LIBRARY THIS MORNING, ONLY TO FIND TWO BLEEDING, CURSED CHILDREN LYING ON THE FLOOR LOOKING DEAD!"

"In all fairness," yawned Scorpius, "she should've just woken us up."

"I guess we didn't realize how bad we looked," muttered Rose. "It was pretty dark."

"AND ANOTHER THING!" shouted Madame Pomfrey, rounding on Rose, who shrunk back into bed in fear, "OUT OF BED, ON THE GROUNDS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT DUELING!?"

"Yeh, I suppose you could look at it that way," said Scorpius, shrugging.

"ON A NORMAL DAY, YOU WOULD GET A MONTHS WORTH OF DETENTION, but as it is, there isn't even a month left in school and you need time to study, so I will simply have to… to… TO CONFISCATE YOUR BROOMS UNTIL THE SCHOOL YEAR HAS ENDED!" she announced, brandishing her wand threateningly.

The two gasped in unison. Quidditch had been the only time they had let themselves take a real brake from studying for the last week. Without it, the end of school would be terrible.

When they were released several hours later, they headed to lunch and ate in silence, knowing that the empty seats at the staff table were those of the two teachers that had been sent to get the brooms. They were very disappointed, knowing that they wouldn't fly for two weeks.

"Merlins beard!" exclaimed Rose, dropping her fork.

"What?!" asked Scorpius in alarm.

"That's right! There are only two weeks left in the year! And exams are this Friday! And then we have a week in which we basically do nothing! And then it's summer!" She sounded shocked, excited and nervous.

"Yeah, I guess so," replied Scorpius unenthusiastically.

"Oh," said Rose. "What're you going to do for summer?" she asked. He shot her a glare.

"I'm going home, of course! Where else would I go!?"

Rose looked concerned. She knew that h hadn't heard from his dad since he was informed about his mother, and Rose knew it wouldn't be a pretty sight when he got home that summer. She just didn't know what to do. She couldn't keep hiding him. He had to go home eventually, and that time was drawing ever nearer, only getting more ominous.

They decided to let that go, and kept to studying in peace for the rest of the day, remaining silent in classes. The day was basically completely uneventful, unless you count the Marauders setting off fireworks to celebrate the end of the year, but at this point, the things those four did didn't really count as eventful anymore, as they happened at least once a week.

"Scorp!" shouted Al at dinner that Wednesday, running up to where Scorpius and Rose were standing. "You HAVE to come visit this summer! You HAVE TO!" Rose glared at him angrily, trying to remind him why that wouldn't happen. "Whaaaat?" whined Al, clinging to Rose and Scorpius, "His dad will let him come if we ask reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllyy nicely, won't he?"

"I highly doubt it," muttered Scorpius, shaking Al off and walking away.

"You idiot!" shouted Rose. "Just shut up about summer vacation already! He has to go home, that's just how it works! We can't help that! All we can do is… tell our parents?" she looked down hopelessly. She knew what they should've done all along was to tell their parents. Scorpius would be free of his father and be living with his kind mother and they would probably still be enemies, but now it was too late. They were too close for Rose to betray him like that. He didn't have a loving mother to go home to. His father was all he had.

"Rosie," started Al, but Rose ran away, back into the now empty entrance hall, tears starting to form on her eyes.

"Rosie," said Al again, following her and sitting on the stairs next to her. He offered her a handkerchief which she took gratefully. "You know what we should do, right?"

"Of course I d-do you id-idiot!" she stammered, still wiping her eyes. "I just don't want to! He wouldn't want our parents help!"

"Rosie…" but again, she stormed away before Al could even form a sentence.

After that, there was an unspoken agreement to pretend like summer vacation didn't exist. The days passed quickly, however, the only thing keeping them off the touchy subject being the exams. They started Friday, and everyone was panicking.

It was eleven pm Thursday, and Rose and Scorpius, even Al were studying.

"PASS THE BOOK!" shouted Rose, who was freaking out because she couldn't remember all the properties of moonstone in potion making.

"Rosie," said Al, passing the book over his shoulder, "Have you ever considered that maybe at this point you've done enough studying and just need some rest? I'm here because I haven't done any studying and barely am now. Same with half these people. You've done enough but if you faint while taking the test and fail because of it, it's your fault. Same with you, Scorp." He never stopped reading as he said it, and he said it in such a matter-of-fact way, that he caught them completely off guard. Eventually he convinced them that he was right, and they headed off to bed.

If they thought that the last two weeks had been crazy for the Ravenclaws, today was exponentially worse. It wasn't any crazier than usual, but the atmosphere surrounding it all, made it seem so much worse. For the first years, they had never been more nervous.

First up was potions, a test that was being watched by Mcgonigal, as there wasn't a teacher at the moment. They were instructed to work alone and create five difficult potions, which Rose and Scorpius had mastered completely earlier that year. They then had to answer questions on a relatively easy test. At this point, the two were very confident, realizing that they had learned enough to pass third year tests with flying colors at this point, and there was nothing to worry about.

Next was defense against the dark arts, which was all demonstrating spells and such that they had learned. Rose and Scorpius got extra credit for demonstrating some OWL level spells that they had learned in their studies, impressing everyone.

Herbology was easy, and also Scorpius's best subject. He had started to really enjoy it recently, after being strongly opposed to it from the devil snare incident. Rose did well too, but this was really Scorpius' time to shine.

Then transfiguration, a tricky subject that was usually the only one that gave the two any trouble. They had spent a long time preparing for this, and surprised themselves by doing great in it.

History of magic was boring and all written. Everyone hated it, and even Rose, who found some of it fascinating, was nodding off by the end.

The final exam was charms, and Rose, in turn, got to show her amazing charming abilities to the class, as well as finishing the written portion with time to spare for extra credit.

Before they knew it, the exams were over. It was very anticlimactic to realize that the thing you've been studying for weeks is over and it wasn't quite as huge as you expected. The thing was, from this side of the exams, summer seemed a lot closer. In fact, it was only a week away.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Rose!" shouted Al from where he was leaning out of a compartment door. "There you are! Come on, we saved a seat!" Rose stepped quietly into the tiny compartment to find Annabeth, Dominique, Andy, Al and Scorpius sitting there. Annabeth was happily sitting with an arm around Al, and everyone was surprised that Al and she were still dating. Dominique had recently made it clear that they weren't completely mistaken about her feelings for Scorpius. Though she was a year older, she seemed to have a crush on Scorpius, who had taken to ignoring her as a solution.

Andy gestured for Rose to take the empty seat between her and Scorpius, and Rose did so happily, resting an elbow on Scorpius' shoulder.

"I can't believe the year's over…" she muttered.

"Yeah, Scorpius, even though you can't visit, you'll be at the wedding won't you?" asked Al, mentioning some almost forgotten things.

"Huh?" asked Scorpius.

"My sister's wedding!" exclaimed Dominique happily. "You just _have _to come!"

"Um… sure," he replied hesitantly, his face looking sad. Rose was the only one who noticed this, and she knew he wouldn't come.

"You have to PROMISE to write!" she said waving her wand at him threateningly.

"of course," he said, smiling.

"I'm so excited!" sad Andy, squealing. "I can't wait to visit in august, Rosie! I'm soooo excited! I can't wait to see your house and meet your parents!"

"Hm. They're nice, Rose's parents," commented Scorpius.

"You can't honestly tell me you liked my dad!" said Rose laughing.

"Well I don't think he was too anxious to get to know me to be honest, So I can't really say," said Scorpius, laughing too.

They all talked happily, avoiding the subject of Scorpius' vacation. Even the people who really didn't know what was going on got the idea. Then something strange happened. For the second time since they had known each other, Rose and Scorpius got into a game of truth or dare. They had no idea what had happened, but suddenly Dominique was asking Scorpius the million-dollar question:

"So Scorpy, who do you like?" She batted her eyelids, waiting for an answer. Rose was waiting too, not even sure if she wanted to know. All eyes were on him, and he was thinking about how he would never get this good an opportunity. The words were on the tip of his tongue, he was about to say it, just a simple confession of love…

Then he ran.

He ran for his life. Before they were sure what had happened, he was already locked in the bathroom, safe from any more questions.

At this point Rose made it clear that she was out of the game, and simply watched with Scorpius, who returned several minutes later, as Al had his first kiss with Annabeth on a dare. The two smiled and laughed, accidentally catching each others eyes. They blushed and looked away. This train ride was even more awkward then the one in the fall, when they had first met.

After a while, the station came into view. Everyone looked out anxiously, waving to family and friends who were waiting for them. Rose waved at her parents and Hugo, who were standing right outside her window when the train came to a complete halt. Everyone filed out of the compartment, dragging their trunks behind them. Once everyone was off the train, Rose stopped Scorpius in the hall, looking sadly at him.

"Just wanted to say bye," she said. "I don't think we'll be able to out there." She gestured to the platform, where, no doubt, their families were waiting to separate them. "And I know I won't see you until September… You have to promis to write."

"Of coarse I'll write, but we will see each other. At the wedding, remember?" he said weakly, giving her a half-smile.

"You're a terrible liar," she said, giving him a big hug. It caught him completely off guard, but he tentatively returned the hug, patting her on the back when he heard the sounds of her crying softly into his shoulder. They said their goodbyes, and walked out of the train, ready to face the summer.

The moment they got off the train, Rose was engulfed in a hug from her parents and brother. She said bye to Al, even though she would see him next week. She and her family got into their car, and drove away, Rose looking back at her blonde friend, who was waving.

Scorpius stood there until she was gone, and then turned around to face the limo that was pulling up next to him. When it stopped, the door opened and a black gloved hand pulled him inside roughly. He braced himself for the worst summer of his life.

(A/N not quite done yet, but almost there. Next will be the epilogue. Sorry for the short chapter but im starting to lose patience, thanks for the reviews, I love them all!)


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The wedding was everything they wanted. It was beautiful, it was an amazing day and all the guests were there. All, that is, except one. Scorpius, to Al's intense disappointment, was nowhere to be seen. This didn't come as a shock to Rose, but as the days wore on, the absence of letters became unbearable. She sent out maybe five, but there must've been a hundred crumpled up drafts lying on the floor of her room. One day in late July, Athena returned after almost a week of absence. Rose wasn't sure why or how, but her feathers were ruffled and her wing looked hurt. For the first time, the letter seemed to have been taken off her leg and read. Apparently the reader had been unhappy with the contents of the letter. After that, Rose gave up, knowing that it would just happen again if she tried again, and was likely to get Athena killed. She had an enjoyable summer, but there was always the lack of contact with her best friend hanging over her like a storm could.

Scorpius had the worst summer ever, and spent the second half of it in St. Mungo's with injuries that he had obtained "falling off his broom." He went to visit his mother's grave but other than that, was confined to his room.

When September came everyone was happy. They were reunited at last.

When they were in their third year, Rose made a decision: Something had to be done about Scorpius' father. She told the two most famous aurors alive; her dad and her uncle. Scorpius didn't speak to her for months, but eventually forgave her when he couldn't stand not talking to her anymore. His dad was in prison, and that summer he stayed with Al's family. The next winter his father was released, but the ministry would be keeping an eye on him, especially when his son was home.

Towards the end of their third year, Al and Annabeth, who had broken up the previous spring, got together again, to everyone's surprise. Their relationship was cut short again when it was revealed that Al was a parceltoung when he accidentally opened the chamber of secrets and was suspended for using it as a storehouse for the marauders.

In their fifth year Lorcan and Lysander came to school, and, being both weird and unpopular, started following Hugo and Lily, both third years, around like ducklings. It got bothersome eventually. That summer Scorpius stayed with Rose, not really being on speaking terms with his dad, and they got their OWL scores together. Hermione cried when she saw that her daughter had beaten her by getting Os in every subject. Ron almost cried when he saw that Rose _hadn't _beaten Scorpius, who he still had grudges against, but now more because he was very overprotective of Rose and said that he and her brother were the only men she would ever need in her life.

Sixth year was amazing, because Scorpius was the first of them to really lose hope and start dating. He felt like he was cheating on Rose, but also didn't understand why he should spend his whole life waiting for someone who was out of his league. At this point, Rose was starting to do the same thing. Al had been entrusted with their secrets, and as they were the strongest and smartest in their year, he was stuck in the awkward position of knowing that his best friends loved each other, and not being able to do anything about it except wait. Rose cried for weeks when Scorpius started dating Lucinda, and Al was the one to comfort her.

In the beginning of their seventh year Victoire had a baby boy, who they named Romulus. They all liked the name at first, but it was hard to find a nickname for… Rom? RomRom? Rommy? There just isn't one. Everyone visited them during winter break, but Scorpius had to return home after Christmas. Nearing the end of the year, there were some problems. A strange sort of love-hexagon thing appeared out of nowhere, making life much more complicated. By April, Rose, Al and Scorpius weren't talking, which was especially awkward with Rose and Al being cousins, and all of them had brocken up with their girl/boyfriends.

In June, the three were forced to work on a division project together, which was now Rose's best subject, to her mother's disgust. During that time, they tried their best to make amends, and found that it was harder not being friends than getting back together. Everyone who surrounded them was happy, as it got kind of gloomy with all the drama going on. This brings us to the end of their Hogwarts years, just after graduation. They all made it. Albus, Rose and Scorpius had passed the NEWTs with flying colors, and now, as they wandered the grounds for the last time as students there, they could only wonder, what next?

"Hehe, look Rosie," said Scorpius, pointing. "They still haven't bothered to fix that crack in the greenhouse window from when we had that fight in our first year." Rose laughed along with him.

"I don't remember the exact circumstances, but I'm _sure_ you were asking for it!" said Rose, smiling fondly at the greenhouse in question.

"Hey, the devil snare was just uncalled for!" said Scorpius, indicating a long scar on his neck. "It permanently blemished my perfect skin!" he whined, sounding like Al.

Rose continued to laugh. "Oh _what a __**tragedy!**_" she said.

"So you're really serious? Your going to Romania to search for that new unknown breed of dragon?" asked Scorpius, his arm on Rose's shoulder.

"Of course! Uncle Bill says it's beautiful there! And the new breed aside, it's the most densely dragon populated place in the world! And I'll be working with a real professional1 think of all the thing's I can learn as his assistant. I've known Professor Scamander since I was a kid, but this will be a whole different story! I was shocked when I heard that he was leaving Luna for a year, but it will be such an amazing experience for both of us! He says he hasn't been in years! Of coarse the "Quibbler" will be getting all the latest news on our research, so you should consider subscribing! I'll send you postcards and visit for the holidays! You and Al should try to come out and visit at some point too! I'm sure it'll be loads of fun!" she said, so enthusiastically that Scorpius felt very bad when her face fell at his expression of loneliness.

"You're even making auror training sound dull now, Rosie," he said, forcing a smile.

"Of coarse not! Dad said it was really fun and he learned a lot even though it was very hard… but that was my dad. You'll be head of the class. And think how cool it'll be when you and Al move into that apartment you've been looking at! I heard Beth was really disappointed. Something about how they've been dating for seven years and they should be moving in together instead of Al getting a roommate. Well, honestly they were only actively dating for five years if you do the math, but I'm not sure either of them are capable of that math… Do you think Al will be able to take care of his share of the rent on his part time job? I know he's writing for the profit and the quibbler but do those pay enough? I mean he will be devoting a lot of time to practicing, but I fully expect him to have joined James on the Chudley Cannons by next year! I wonder when he'll try out… But remember to tell me if he doesn't help pay, though. I'll come right over from Romania and hex him for you! Oh, by the way, the tent me and Professor Scamander are traveling in has a built in fireplace so we can use the flu network to talk! We should talk at least once a week, promise?" she asked, finally taking a pause to breathe.

"Of course, Rose. Did you always talk this much?" asked Scorpius, smiling for real this time, but still with a hint of loneliness in his eyes.

"Oh, am I? I'm just soooo excited!" squealed Rose.

"It's ok. I love hearing you speak, but it always seemed like Andy or Lily's thing." He smiled and she returned it cheerfully.

"Oi! Rose! Scorp!" shouted Teddy from where he was sitting by the lake with the others. They were setting up a picnic and were all going to eat and celebrate together.

"Coming!" shouted Rose, waving. She grabbed Scorpius' arm, but he stayed still. "Come on, I'm starving!" she said, tugging more persistently.

"Hold on a sec," he said, feeling very nervous. He knew what he wanted to say, but he just really didn't know how. "I… You know, Rose… I…" He looked around, trying to think what to say, eventually deciding to stick with a very straightforward approach. "I… I love you, Rosie…" He waited for a response, but none came for a moment. "Well I guess that means-" but then he was cut off. Rose flung her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. "Well I guess that means you do too?" he asked, once she had released him. She just nodded, grinning. "Well that was certainly better than last time," said Scorpius winking, his arms around Rose's waist. Rose blushed, remembering the new years kiss that had remained unmentioned for so long.

"W-we said w-we would for-forget about th-that!" she stammered, still blushing bright pink, but this time it was Scorpius' turn to cut her off. He pulled her closer and gave her another kiss, this time for longer. The cheers were clearly audible from where the Weasley and Potters were sitting by the lake, and passers by were wolf-whistling, but Rose and Scorpius didn't care. For now all that mattered was that everyone was happy, and the future held great things for all of them.

The End

(A/N And thus ends the first fic I have ever posted on ! Sorry for the poorly written, cliché ending, but I want to write some pokemon and furuba fics next and I just cant wait. I also have school applications so I needed to finish up. Thanks for reading and an extra thanks to those who reviewed! U all rock! Bye!)


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